Lottery is a game where winning is based on a completely random process that is not only unwinnable, but also often ruins the lives of those who participate. It’s an addictive form of gambling, and the jackpots are large enough to turn people into dreamers, but they aren’t large enough to solve all the problems that these gamblers have. There are plenty of stories to prove that a sudden windfall can actually make things worse.
Cohen writes that the lottery’s modern incarnation began in the nineteen-sixties, when growing awareness of the money to be made in gambling collided with a state funding crisis. Many states had built a generous social safety net, and balancing that budget became increasingly difficult without raising taxes or cutting services, both of which would enrage voters. The lottery appeared to be a miracle revenue generator, a way for states to raise hundreds of millions of dollars seemingly out of thin air.
Those who defend the lottery argue that people understand the odds and that they have a civic duty to buy tickets. But that argument is flawed. It suggests that people understand the irrationality of the process and still do it anyway, that they’re not responsible for their actions, and it obscures the fact that lottery spending is very much tied to economic trends. It is more common for people who earn less to spend a larger share of their incomes on tickets than those who earn more, and lottery marketing efforts are focused heavily in communities that are disproportionately poor, Black, or Latino.