The casting of lots to make decisions and determine fates has a long record in human history, including several instances recorded in the Bible. More recently, the lottery has become a means to disperse cash prizes among paying participants. This kind of lottery is called a financial lottery.
Most states organize their own lotteries. When they do, they typically legislate a state monopoly; establish a public agency or corporation to run the lottery; start with a small number of relatively simple games; and then, due to pressure for additional revenues, progressively expand the lottery in terms of game offerings and promotional efforts.
In the case of many state lotteries, the underlying rationale for their existence is a claim that the proceeds benefit a particular public good. This rationale is especially effective when the state is experiencing financial stress, when it can be argued that the lottery helps to alleviate the pain of tax increases or cuts in important public programs. However, studies have shown that the popularity of a lottery is not necessarily connected to the state’s actual fiscal health, and that the public may be willing to support a lottery even when the state is well funded.
A number of issues have surfaced over the years in connection with state lotteries, some related to compulsive gambling and others to the alleged regressive impact of lottery playing on lower-income groups. Nevertheless, the overall success of these state-run lotteries has been remarkable. Lottery revenue streams have increased steadily and the public continues to be enthusiastic about the concept.
Despite the fact that the odds of winning are essentially zero, people continue to play lotteries, spending billions in lottery ticket sales every year. For many, the purchase of a lottery ticket is seen as a low-risk investment with the potential to return hundreds of millions in dollars. Yet, it should be noted that these dollars represent foregone savings for retirement and other purposes which could have been achieved through sound investments.
In addition, many people spend time and money trying to “beat” the lottery by using strategies such as picking numbers that have significance to them or selecting Quick Picks. Harvard statistics professor Mark Glickman and other experts caution that these tips are technically false, useless or misleading.
The bottom line is that lottery players contribute billions to government receipts which could be used for a variety of other purposes, including paying down debt, reducing crime and improving education. In an anti-tax era, state governments are increasingly dependent on lottery profits and are often unable to resist the pressures to increase them. The result is a set of policy decisions which are made piecemeal and incrementally, with little or no overall vision, direction or oversight. Moreover, the authority for managing these policies is split between different branches of the government and is further fragmented within each branch. Consequently, the overall public interest is often only intermittently considered by lottery officials. The results are a system that is neither transparent nor sustainable.