The Ugly Underbelly of the Lottery

The casting of lots for determining fates and property has a long history in human culture, including several cases in the Bible. But the state lottery’s evolution is a classic case of policymaking made piecemeal and incrementally, with the result that public welfare concerns are not taken into consideration very often or even at all.

Lottery advertisements focus on the big prizes – they dangle the promise of instant riches in an age of inequality and limited social mobility. But there is an ugly underbelly, too. For most players, there is a strong feeling that winning the lottery – however improbable – will provide their last, best or only chance at upward mobility.

Most financial lotteries require participants to pay a small amount for a chance at a large prize, either by selecting numbers or having machines randomly select them. A percentage of the money is deducted for costs and profits, while the remainder goes to winners. Occasionally, the prize is so large that it can’t be awarded in one drawing, and the money rolls over to the next drawing.

The prize amounts are typically enormous, which drives ticket sales and generates publicity for the lottery. But the size of the jackpot also makes the odds of winning extremely long. While lottery officials say that the prize amounts are proportional to ticket sales, they do not discuss the fact that a super-sized jackpot increases the likelihood that the prize will roll over from draw to draw and thus increase the number of tickets sold for the next drawing.