Important Lottery Messages
A lottery is a type of gambling game in which people buy tickets for a chance to win a prize, usually a large sum of money. It is often run by state or federal governments. There are also private lotteries, in which players pay to try their luck at winning a prize. The odds of winning are usually very low, but many people still play because they hope for a big jackpot.
The earliest lotteries were probably games of chance that determined the distribution of property among people in ancient times. The Old Testament records, for example, that the tribes of Israel were numbered and divided by lot. The lottery as we know it today is likely to have originated in the Low Countries, where public lotteries were used to raise funds for a variety of purposes, from town fortifications to helping the poor.
In the United States, the first state-run lotteries were launched in the immediate post-World War II period when states were expanding their social safety nets and needed additional revenue to finance them. Lotteries were marketed as an easy, painless way to generate funds without raising taxes or cutting spending. In fact, state government officials hoped that lotteries could become the main source of revenue for their states, replacing general taxation and other sources such as sales taxes.
One of the main messages that state lotteries rely on is that even if you don’t win, you should feel good about playing because it’s good for the community. The problem is that this message obscures how regressive lottery play really is. People who play the lottery are disproportionately lower-income, less educated, nonwhite, and male. The average person who plays the lottery spends close to a third of their annual income on tickets.
Another important message is that if you don’t play, you will miss out on the big prizes. But again, that’s not true. While the odds of winning are very low, the probability of a number being drawn is equal for all ticket holders. There are no “lucky” numbers and there are no patterns to what numbers get chosen more than others.
The final important message is that it’s a lot easier to play if you join a lottery pool with friends or coworkers. Recruit a dependable, responsible person to act as the pool manager and keep detailed records of money collected and tickets purchased. The manager should also create a contract that everyone signs to agree on how the winnings will be distributed. It’s important to communicate regularly and keep the pool members informed about changes in the winnings structure. A good pool manager can help to minimize the risk of fraud, scams, and bad feelings. This video can be used by kids & teens to learn about lottery and as a personal finance or money management resource for parents and teachers as part of a financial literacy or personal economics curriculum. -Video by: Emily McCoy, CFP®