Top 10 Reasons to Ban the Lottery
Americans from almost every state, including Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, have a chance to strike it big by playing one of many games offered in the lottery. From Powerball to scratch cards, millions of Americans play the lottery every day. If you have never played the lottery then you almost certainly know people who have.
While everyone knows someone who plays the lottery in some form, few people know anyone who has ever won. Of course, there is that lucky person who seems to continuously win $20 from pile of scratch cards, but as a whole, few people know anyone who has ever won a Powerball jackpot worth a few million dollars.
The lottery has become a divisive issue in many states precisely because of this reason. Virtually nobody wins the lottery, and when they do, the fees, taxes and scam services that come out of the checks reduce the winnings from possible millions to the hundreds of thousands. Even if you do win, it seems that winning is not as profitable as they make it out to be.
But, the real reason that the lottery has become so divisive is not because Americans are a bunch of sore losers. It is because the lottery essentially works as a state tax, though it does not advertise itself as one. A high proportion of the lottery revenues go into the state budget and come out again as funding for public works. Though this on its own is not a bad thing.
The problem with the lottery is that it is a tax that is unfairly levied on the most vulnerable people in America. Those who are uneducated or poor are far more likely to play the lottery than those with comfortable incomes and college degrees. In fact, reports say that vulnerable groups spend twice as much on lottery tickets.
The lottery is a predatory tax excised by the government on the most vulnerable people in our society. The advertising makes players believe that they improving social systems or are buying a chance at a better life when the data demonstrates that they are not. As if this were not enough, here are ten more reasons that the lottery should be banned.
10Lotteries Take Billions of Dollars Out of the Economy
9Lotteries Work as a Tax on the Poor
8Lotteries Target Uneducated Communities
7Lotteries Encourage Wrong Information about Poverty
6Lotteries Enable Gambling, Which Is an Addictive Behavior
5Winners Rarely Benefit From the Lottery
4The Chance of Winning the Lottery Is Virtually None
3An Unclear Amount of Lottery Money Stays with the Retailer
2The History of the American Lottery Is Sordid At Best
1There Are Fairer Ways to Tax than Through the Lottery
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