The Popularity of the Lottery
The casting of lots to decide decisions and fates has a long history in human societies, including several instances recorded in the Bible. Lotteries as games of chance for material gain, however, are considerably more recent, with the first recorded public lottery in the West occurring during the reign of Augustus Caesar to fund municipal repairs in Rome. Lotteries quickly became popular in colonial America, where they played a key role in financing both private and public ventures, including roads, libraries, churches, canals, bridges, and colleges. Benjamin Franklin even ran a lottery in 1748 to help finance a militia for defense against French marauders.
Modern state lotteries are run as business enterprises with a clear goal of maximizing revenues through advertising, which focuses on persuading target groups to spend money on tickets. Critics charge that this promotion of gambling is harmful to society, while proponents argue that it offers a safe and legitimate alternative to other taxed forms of entertainment.
Despite the wide range of opinions on the matter, lottery participation continues to be very popular, with more than half of all adults in states that offer it playing at least once in a given year. The popularity of lotteries is widely believed to be driven by the fact that they offer a painless way to raise revenue without raising taxes or cutting essential services. The fact that the proceeds are earmarked for specific, well-defined public purposes helps to further solidify the popularity of the game.
Lotteries are also favored by states because they develop broad specific constituencies, including convenience store owners (who serve as the primary vendors); lottery suppliers (whose heavy contributions to state political campaigns are regularly reported); teachers (in those states in which lotteries’ profits are earmarked for education), and state legislators who become accustomed to the extra income. It is for this reason that state governments have consistently won broad, bipartisan approval to establish and operate lotteries.
The drawback to this is that, in addition to the obvious danger of promoting gambling, lottery advertising is often misleading. It tends to exaggerate the odds of winning, inflate the value of a prize (lotto jackpots are paid in equal annual installments over 20 years, with inflation and taxes rapidly eroding its current value), and may promote unsound financial habits, such as borrowing to buy tickets. Studies have shown that people in lower-income neighborhoods participate in the lottery at much higher levels than their proportion of the overall population. This has led some critics to argue that the popularity of the lottery undermines efforts to reduce poverty and inequality. Others point to the fact that the disproportionately low participation rates of poor people in state lotteries do not necessarily reflect their actual economic status. The bottom line is that lottery play is not necessarily a substitute for taxes, and in any case does not automatically translate to better public services.