Despite Billion-Dollar Jackpots, Critics Say the Lottery Is a Losing Game
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4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 21 January 2023
⏱️ 17 minutes
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Summary
Spending a few dollars for a chance at a massive jackpot seems irresistible. Roughly half of all Americans buy at least one lottery ticket per year, despite the nearly impossible odds of winning. But some people take it much further.
Unlike casino games and sports betting, messaging around playing the lottery can make it seem much less like actual gambling and more like a fun way to chase a dream of luxury and wealth.
But some critics feel that the lottery uses predatory practices to disproportionately target low-income communities and people of color.
Host Michel Martin talks to Jonathan D. Cohen, author of For a Dollar and a Dream: State Lotteries In Modern America.
NPR reporter Jonathan Franklin contributed to this episode.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | What's up America? I'm John Crowe. It is Friday, January 13th and ties Mega Billion's |
| 0:05.3 | jackpot as an estimated and new ties $1.35 billion to win that jackpot. You must bet |
| 0:11.7 | these five winballs plus that gold Mega Ball. Now, let's see if I can make you a billion |
| 0:16.8 | air tonight. Let's face it, just about everybody at some point fantasizes about winning the |
| 0:22.2 | lottery, especially, you know, a really big one. Last week, some lucky player or players |
| 0:27.2 | in Lebanon, Maine, they have yet to be identified. One that $1.35 billion, the second largest |
| 0:33.5 | jackpot history. And over the years, plenty of others have won smaller amounts. |
| 0:38.6 | Are you kidding me? You just want two million dollars? You're kidding me. What? What? What? |
| 0:48.2 | What? Which might make you feel like you have a shot, but, and sorry to be a buzzkill |
| 0:53.3 | here, it's actually nearly impossible. But despite the daunting odds, there are lots of |
| 0:58.6 | people who chase that dream, regularly buying Mega Millions, Powerball or Instant Scratch-Off |
| 1:03.8 | tickets. In fact, roughly half of all Americans buy at least one lottery ticket a year. |
| 1:10.0 | In my mind, just the lottery as a presence of popular culture in America, I don't think |
| 1:14.6 | it's nearly enough attention by all of us. I mean, it's kind of like embedded in our |
| 1:20.2 | eyes. Dr. Timothy Fong is a professor of psychiatry |
| 1:23.8 | and co-director of the UCLA gambling studies program. He says that because the idea of the |
| 1:29.1 | lottery is so much a part of the culture, a lot of people don't even think of it as gambling, |
| 1:33.4 | the way they do say a casino or wadring on sports. I think, if you ask most people, they'll |
| 1:39.0 | say, is a lottery a form of gambling? I think most people would say, well, maybe I'm not |
| 1:44.6 | sure, or they'll say, but it's not as dangerous as they slots, or it doesn't convey the same |
| 1:49.9 | sense of loss and potential risk as sports. Dr. Fong says the additional messaging from |
| 1:56.9 | state lottery that the money provides funds for important causes like schools and services |
... |
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