Lotteries: America's $70 Billion Shame

[elleblue]

I've never bought a lottery ticket. And now that I'm well into adulthood, I'm almost too embarrassed to buy any because I wouldn't know what I'm doing, there are too many choices. lol

[mmmomof2]

Jan 7, 2016 16:35:42 GMT -5 toledo said:

 According to the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries, lotteries took in $70.1 billion in sales in the 2014 fiscal year. That’s more than Americans in all 50 states spent on sports tickets, books, video games, movie tickets, and recorded music sales.

Wow! How can that be true? I mean I'm sure they aren't lying but I would have thought cummulative it would be a lot more. Unless they mean individually each category is less than $70B. 

[mmmomof2]

Thanks for the chart toledo. I would have thought sports tickets would have been higher. I guess the lottery sales are truly staggering. Obviously there are some people spending a huge percentage of their income since so many people never play at all. I should boycott I suppose, but I'm sure going to spend $5-$10 before Saturday's drawing!

[saz]

Jan 7, 2016 16:43:01 GMT -5 elleblue said:

I've never bought a lottery ticket. And now that I'm well into adulthood, I'm almost too embarrassed to buy any because I wouldn't know what I'm doing, there are too many choices. lol

haha me too. I told DH today that I would actually be embarrassed buying one, like I was when I used to buy condoms in college. 

[OscarQ]

Oh wow! That last graphic. I read something similar years ago and mentioned to my dad that he should bother buying lottery tickets since he was probably just throwing his money away. He pulled out a book and showed me how he recorded every purchase and every winning ticket and only continued to play as long as the winnings covered his costs. Dude! Get a hobby! Other than tracking your lotto ticket purchases. If he had invested that same money annually for 50 years...

[OscarQ]

Jan 7, 2016 17:01:49 GMT -5 saz said:

Jan 7, 2016 16:43:01 GMT -5 elleblue said:

I've never bought a lottery ticket. And now that I'm well into adulthood, I'm almost too embarrassed to buy any because I wouldn't know what I'm doing, there are too many choices. lol

haha me too. I told DH today that I would actually be embarrassed buying one, like I was when I used to buy condoms in college. 

I put this in another thread but I'm happy to not be the only one clueless about buying lottery tickets.

[Bernadine]

I worked part-time in a liquor store for a while, and I could not BELIEVE the hundreds of dollars people would drop on lotto. And multiple times a week, if not everyday. Lots of elderly people as well.

[mominatrix]

Jan 7, 2016 17:14:23 GMT -5 Bernadine said:

I worked part-time in a liquor store for a while, and I could not BELIEVE the hundreds of dollars people would drop on lotto. And multiple times a week, if not everyday. Lots of elderly people as well.

Yeah. I worked in convenience stores in high school and college, and I was always blown away by how much lottery money people spent.

Then again, I was blown away by how much money people gambled when we were in Vegas (I was playing Craps, and it was fairly NBD for some rando to hand over $1k for chips at a time).

[WanderingWinoZ]

Eh- it's one of those things that I struggle with. Should society let people do/participate/partake in things or activities that are on the whole unhealthy or detrimental (gambling? alcohol? pot? cocaine?). At some point you let people have their own choices about entertainment or self-defeating behavior as long as it's not generally harming society as a whole, but I hate that gambling in general disproportionately impacts the poor in a negative manner.

as usual, John Oliver already had a great piece on this www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PK-netuhHA

[5thofjuly]

There's a good Freakonomics podcast, I think, in which they detail this bank that gives people what are essentially lotto chances for every $40 they put in a CD. The bank took a fraction of the interest and gave away prizes based on what they earned. FWIR, People could win anywhere from $10 to $100 to $100,000. Savings rates among the low income skyrocketed! But, essentially, the state lottery commission shut them down.

I think part of the issue is that many states have cut taxes so much that they rely on things like the lottery to balance the budget.

[elleblue]

Jan 7, 2016 21:04:48 GMT -5 5thofjuly said:

I think part of the job is that many states have cut taxes so much that they rely on things like the lottery to balance the budget.

Exactly. And likely why we don't hear cries of "no lotto tickets for poor people", even though the charts above show that many of the people who participate, can't really afford it. 

[shell403b]

I spent $9 on lottery tickets in 2015, they were $1 each, and I gave them to other people. I am stunned by the $230/$300 numbers.

[fumbalina]

I sold lotto tickets as well, but in a high income area. There were a few who bought tons of tickets, but mostly it was $5 at a time.

Since we undercut every safety net, fight to keep the minimum wage low, and run credit checks on many job openings, it is not surprising the poor buy lotto tickets. It is impossible to save your way out of poverty, so people do anything they can to get ahead.

The easiest way out of poverty is selling illegal drugs, but that comes with huge risks, so lotto tickets tend to be a minor bastion of hope that there is an end to scrimping.

[GilliC]

Jan 7, 2016 17:04:01 GMT -5 OscarQ said:

Oh wow! That last graphic. I read something similar years ago and mentioned to my dad that he should bother buying lottery tickets since he was probably just throwing his money away. He pulled out a book and showed me how he recorded every purchase and every winning ticket and only continued to play as long as the winnings covered his costs. Dude! Get a hobby! Other than tracking your lotto ticket purchases. If he had invested that same money annually for 50 years...

Back when you still had to go inside the station to pay for gas, I used to buy a scratch-off ticket every time I filled up my tank. My dad had me keep a notebook in the glove compartment to track the gas mileage (so we'd know if something started going wrong with my old clunker), so I started keeping a note next to the mileage to track my lottery winnings. It only took a few extra seconds, and it was fun to see that I was actually coming out ahead thanks to a few "big" $30 wins!

[jillboston]

I work with people facing foreclosure. I review their bank statements as part of that. One client (who had a good job driving an MBTA bus - roughly 63K a year) was routinely withdrawing $400-$600 per day (in $100 and $200 increments) to buy scratch tickets.

I worked with another person who actually won a million on a scratch ticket - bought a house mostly with cash but unfortunately had a mortgage on it too - and lost the house to foreclosure after she gambled away all the money.

[tacosforlife]

Jan 7, 2016 21:04:48 GMT -5 5thofjuly said:

I think part of the issue is that many states have cut taxes so much that they rely on things like the lottery to balance the budget.

Yes. This is a HUGE issue. It simply becomes a regressive tax, but since it's the lottery, taxes are low, which is awesome because this is America!

I'll occasionally buy a ticket when the jackpot is really high, but seeing how lotteries work in practice is pretty disgusting.

[aurora]

Jan 8, 2016 8:37:24 GMT -5 spearmintleaf said:

I'm sort of conflicted on this. My predominant reaction is that we as a society need tax dollars. If people are voluntarily giving them, why would we intervene? Based on some paternalistic sense that poor people don't have enough sense to choose for themselves what they spend their disposable income on? I mean, its not a hoax. People DO win. The chances of winning are publicly stated. Idk.

I do think it's unfortunate though.

If it were possible for all Americans to move up the socioeconomic ladder via talent and hard work (which numerous studies show is not the case), then I wouldn't have an objection to the lottery.

What I object to is the desperation element. So many people are living in a system where this is really the only way they can dream of a financially secure life.

[GilliC]

Jan 8, 2016 10:44:18 GMT -5 @mx said:

How do lotteries work in other countries? I know that the UK and the Netherlands have some kind of lottery because they fund a number of our projects.

From what I've read, it seems that many countries channel the revenue through distribution funds, so it's divided and awarded to programs and causes independently of the government budget. Apparently in Norway around 45% of the remaining revenue (after awards and administration) are spent funding sports! (With the remainder divided between cultural and humanitarian programs.)

I also saw an interesting study analyzing the relationship between GDP and lottery spending, which shows an inverted U with lottery spending increasing with GDP up to a certain point, after which it declines as GDP increases.
pascal.iseg.utl.pt/~depeco/wp/wp412008.pdf

[polarbearfans]

Wow. We spend like $5 total throughout the year on random tickets