The State Lottery
The lottery is a gambling game that raises money for various purposes. The game requires that players pay a small amount of consideration, usually a dollar or less, in exchange for the chance to win a prize, which may range from money to valuable items such as sports memorabilia and jewelry. The federal government prohibits the sale of lottery tickets in interstate commerce and the use of television, radio, or mail to promote them. The states have their own laws regulating the operation of lotteries, but most delegate the responsibility for their implementation to special lottery divisions. These agencies select and license retailers, train employees to use lottery terminals to sell tickets and redeem winning tickets, promote games by purchasing billboard space, distribute promotional materials, and ensure that all state lottery rules are followed.
In addition to their promotional activities, state lotteries serve a number of specific constituencies. These include convenience store operators (the usual vendors); lottery suppliers (heavy contributions from these firms to state political campaigns are regularly reported); teachers, in those states where lottery revenues are earmarked for education; and, of course, state legislators (who quickly become accustomed to the extra revenue).
Lottery advertising is geared toward persuading people to spend their dollars on the game. These dollars represent foregone savings that could be used for retirement or college tuition, and the likelihood of ever winning a jackpot is incredibly low. But the most important question is not whether or not people should play the lottery but rather whether the state, in its role as lottery operator, is doing a good job of managing the activity from which it profits.
State lotteries were introduced in the immediate post-World War II era, when many states had larger social safety nets and a belief that lottery revenues would allow them to expand their services without imposing additional taxes on the middle class or working poor. Over the years, state governments have gotten more and more reliant on these revenues, and the pressure is constantly mounting to increase the number of available games and jackpots.
The problem is that state governments are not able to manage this industry from the top down, since lottery operations are almost always at cross-purposes with state policy. As they evolve, lottery officials have little or no overall vision, and they make decisions in a piecemeal and incremental fashion, taking public welfare concerns only intermittently into account.
As a result, the lottery functions at cross-purposes with state policies on gambling and poverty, and it is often run by bureaucrats whose only goal is to maximize revenue. In addition, the promotion of gambling inevitably has negative consequences for the poor and problem gamblers, and it is not necessarily the appropriate function for the government to undertake. In the end, lottery revenues are a drop in the bucket for state budgets.
