Winning the lottery is the ultimate dream for many people that play it, and why shouldn’t it be? Sure money doesn’t solve all of life answers nor does it necessarily grant you happiness, but it would be pretty grand to win right? Depending on which lottery you play, you have the potential to turn a $5 dollar ticket into hundreds of millions of dollars. Now obviously there are many losers, but there is always that chance that you might be a winner. So how exactly does each lottery come up with all the money to pay the winners? Well you might be surprised to learn that the lottery industry is worth more money that movie ticket sales, music, and pornography combined.
Lotteries have been around for seemingly ever, but in the United States the modern lottery system was first introduced in 1964. Back then, the state of New Hampshire created the first modern, state lottery and it has since spread. Today, forty-three states in the United States and every single Canadian province have their own lotteries. Lotteries in the past have been used to help fund towns, create schools and universities, and a lottery even helped build the transcontinental railroad. That notion still holds true today. The combined lottery business in North America is worth around $70 billion dollars, and since they are run by state governments, every state benefits from all the funds raised. In some cases, the lottery even helps pay for and funds a states education system. And they get all their money from, surprise surprise, ticket sales.
It is estimated that 50% of Americans will purchase a lottery ticket in their lifetime, and a large percentage of the population are hooked on playing. Studies indicate that the majority of lottery tickets are bought by the same 20% of people. Typically these players are often uneducated and are not very wealthy, as they are looking to win it big. We also known that the homes with the smallest combined household income also spend a considerable amount of their earnings playing the various lottery games throughout the United States and Canada. There’s a reason why your chances of winning it big are so slim because so many people play the games. Due to the consistently high number of frequent players, the various state lotteries make enough money to not only cover those hundred million dollar jackpots and their cost of operations, they also help the states infrastructure. Let’s not also forget that the state takes out a considerable amount of your winnings in taxes as well. It’s huge revenue stream for them with practically zero overhead.
So is the lottery business “bad” because they make the majority of their earnings from poor and uneducated people purchasing tickets? I don’t think so, since you should be free to spend your own money how you see fit (within the confines of the law, obviously). And besides, the lottery is a great way for states to generate money to help fund schools and their local infrastructure. Let’s not also forget that there still is always that slim chance that you might win. Still, I don’t play the lottery nor do I have any intentions of ever playing. But as you can tell, the lottery industry doesn’t need people like me, since they already take in so much money as it is. As long as people have the potential to earn say, $300 million without doing any work, the lottery industry will continue to thrive.
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