Counterpoint: state lotteries are not a viable policy option.

• Author: Waite, Jennifer

State lotteries are undoubtedly big business and an extremely relevant and important public policy. In the United States, thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia hold lotteries; internationally, one hundred countries have legalized lotteries. (1) Lotteries, like any public policy, need to be examined carefully. To what extent do they benefit the public? Who receives the benefits and what are the costs and intentions of the policy? How is the policy implemented? The foremost problems with lotteries as public policy include: their clearly regressive nature as a revenue source; the tendency for the revenue to not end up being the promised boon for the attached issue; the shocking fact that state governments are not required to comply with the Federal Trade Commission's "truth in advertising" regulations and manipulate this exemption to skillfully deceive the public regarding the realities of chance; and, the unavoidable philosophical dilemmas posed by having state governments sponsor and promote such a widespread and destructive vice as addictive gambling.

Lotteries are a regressive source of revenue for state governments; they take a larger percentage of the income of low-income people than of high-income people. Michael Heberling, President of the Baker College Center for Graduate Studies in Flint, Michigan, argues that, "Every study of the lottery has shown that its burden falls disproportionately on the poor and that most of the benefits go to those who are well off." (2) The people who most heavily play the lottery are the poor, the elderly, those with less education, and minorities. People with annual incomes less than $10,000 spend the greatest percentage of their income on lotteries than any other income group. (3) According to Joseph McCrary, a researcher for the Baltimore City Public School System, and Stephen E. Condrey, Senior Associate and Program Director of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia, "African Americans are more likely to participate in the lottery more frequently and to reside in areas where lottery sales per capita are higher." (4) Their research also shows that people older than sixty-five spend an average of $475 per year on lotteries, while their younger counterparts between the ages of eighteen and twenty-nine spend an average of $152 annually. (5) People with less education also have a greater tendency to play the lottery. According to the National Coalition Against...