Why Do People Play the Lottery?

Lottery is one of the most popular forms of gambling in America. People spent more than $100 billion on tickets in 2021, and the idea of winning the big prize—to buy a new house, pay off debt, or just escape from life’s daily grind—is a recurring dream in many minds. But why do so many people play the lottery? And how much do they really win?

The answer to both questions isn’t that simple. Lotteries aren’t just a form of gambling; they’re also an attempt to distribute wealth. They’re a way for state governments to raise money and give the proceeds to the public in exchange for an intangible promise that everybody’s odds of getting rich are about equal.

In the past, states promoted their lotteries by framing them as an efficient alternative to taxes. The postwar era saw a great expansion of government services that required money, and the lottery was seen as a low-cost alternative to raising those taxes.

But the truth is that state lotteries don’t really help to reduce tax rates. Instead, they tend to subsidize certain economic interests, including convenience store operators (for whom the lottery is typically a major business); lottery suppliers and their distributors (heavy contributions to state political campaigns are routinely reported); teachers (in states where lotto revenues are earmarked for education); and state legislators (who quickly grow accustomed to the extra revenue). Lottery players are also disproportionately lower-income, less educated, and nonwhite. That’s part of why the winners—when they do appear—are often from those communities, and not just a random person in the middle class.