State Lotteries

State lotteries take money from 33 million Americans each week in scratch-off and drawing scams alone. Annually, roughly half of all Americans purchase a state lottery ticket.^[1]

Slick advertising aimed at low-income workers, such as $74 million in advertising by New York to generate $10 billion in annual sales. ^[2]

State lotteries began in 1964 and have been robbing those who can least afford it ever since.

Lotteries are a form of regressive tax, yet supported by so-called progressives anyway. In addition, numerous winners have experienced personal tragedy, bankruptcy, and other bad fates.

As of 2022, 45 of the 50 states, along with the District of Columbia and the territories of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands operate a state lottery. In addition, all the jurisdictions above participate in Powerball (a multi-state lottery) and all but Puerto Rico participate in Mega Millions (another multi-state lottery). Furthermore, some of the states also operate other multi-state games which are more regional in nature.

The five states which do not operate lotteries are Alabama (due to its religious objections), Utah (which prohibits it in its state constitution), Nevada (where the opposition comes from the legalized gambling industry there, fearing a lottery to be a direct competitor), and Alaska and Hawai'i (due to their geographic isolation from the contiguous states).

References[edit]

1. ↑ https://news.gallup.com/poll/193874/half-americans-play-state-lotteries.aspx
2. ↑ https://www.aei.org/op-eds/state-lotteries-and-the-war-on-work/