Are state lotteries a good thing? Who really benefits?

Question

Is it the state?...schools are still way underfunded.

People who actually win the lottery?

Who buys the lottery tickets? Poor,wealthy, middle class?

Answer 1

The lottery benefits and the people that happen to win.

The schools only get some really small percentage of the lottery.

Answer 2

Lotteries are horrible. They create an environment where people think they can make a lot of money with no effort. Most who win millions lose it in a few years because they do not have the skills to manage the money.

Lottery tickets are generally bought by the poor who want a quick out of their circumstances. Lottery tickets are how most convenience stores make money. The mentality that drives someone to buy a lottery ticket is not unique to poor people. I see it in people who have poor money management skills.

Answer 3

Schools in most states are the greatest beneficiaries of the lottery system. Wealthy people are least likely to buy into the lottery because they know the odds are more in your favor to take that money and invest it in the other gambling of choice-the stock market! And over a 20 year spread, you are almost guaranteed to make money on your blue chip stalks whereas you can buy into the lottery your whole life and never win enough to cover the cost of the lottery tickets.

Answer 4

"Lotteries are a tax on people who don't understand math."

states promote lotteries by saying that the revenue will go to education. While this is true, legislatures find ways to reroute the "other" money they would have spent on education to fund other projects. In Texas, the lottery funds go right into the general funds.

The winners of course benefit, unless they are "small" jackpot winners, and spend their winnings instead of investing them. Many people buy houses and hot cars and a year later are broke and selling the items to pay their property taxes.

Studies show that poor people are more likely to spend more of their income on lottery tickets. Poor people are poor partly because they already make bad monetary decisions, so this is not a surprise.

More educated people are aware that the odds of the "big win" are so slight as to be insignificant.

I believe that lotteries are inevitable, as is casino gambling and other games of chance. People WANT to play these games and don't care that the odds are stacked against the players.

Answer 5

The big lie is the schools, they used to fund schools entirely out of the general fund and when the lotterys came in the just take what they make in the lottery and use it for other stuff. It is just another tax, most of the people in line are middle and poor classes.

Answer 6

Lotteries have been around for a long time. Centuries. Some funds have gone toward fighting wars for some countries or are put toward building projects. Lotteries do pay for quite a bit but what is confusing is isn't our taxes supposed to do these things? Makes one wonder who is skimming off of the top.

Answer 7

The states benefits, they just don't put the money in schools. The poor buy the lottery tickets, "poor man's tax".

Answer 8

In Oklahoma the proceeds are suppose to help fund schools and other stuff. In Texas the lottery also funds the schools, parks and recreations, travel centers and the like. My best guess on who buys lottery tickets is middle class, but that is just a guess.

thumbs down or not, its still my answer. When the lottery bill was passed in Oklahoma that is how it was set up

Answer 9

The states benefit. Then the schools. Then the winners.

The poor blow money on tickets, but so does everyone else. It's plain ole gambling.'

Answer 10

the government wins andd the idiots who buy them lose, except for the one moron who wins.