What’s the Point of Lotteries?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 13 September 2016
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It is now hard to find a country that does not have a state sponsored lottery – even the remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan recently adopted one. They have famously been called a “tax for people who are bad at maths” and make little economic sense for the individuals who play. Instead, lotteries allow governments to raise much needed revenue to be spent on ‘good causes.’ But there is more to lotteries than power-balls and million dollar prizes. Should we embrace them as a way of making life more fair? Presented by Michael Blastland.
(Photo: Lottery balls are seen in a box at a Liquor store in San Lorenzo, California. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to the inquiry with me Michael Blasland. |
| 0:05.0 | Earlier this year in the Powerball Lottery in the US, |
| 0:11.0 | players had the chance of leaping onto the Forbes global |
| 0:14.8 | rich list of billionaires almost instantly. Tonight's jackpot is approaching |
| 0:20.2 | 1.6 billion dollars that's billion with a B. I hope you have your tickets good |
| 0:26.1 | luck. To put that into proportion a million dollars is a dollar every single |
| 0:31.8 | second for more than 11 days. |
| 0:34.0 | But a billion dollars is a dollar a second every minute of every day and night for 32 years. |
| 0:41.0 | Even Hillary Clinton bought a ticket. I did. And if you win? Well I'll fund my campaign. |
| 0:49.8 | And that's the whole point about lotteries isn't it? I'm just on my way to buy a ticket now. |
| 0:54.0 | Why? |
| 0:55.0 | Obviously, because so the next time I talk to you, |
| 0:57.0 | I can do it for my yacht in the Caribbean. |
| 0:59.0 | I've chosen my numbers. |
| 1:00.0 | Here we go. |
| 1:02.0 | What one of this before the draw. The odds in that |
| 1:11.0 | powerball were nearly 200 million to one. |
| 1:14.0 | So, a simple, foolish gamble, a worldwide market in stupidity? |
| 1:20.0 | Or do lotteries, big money lotteries with all their randomness |
| 1:24.4 | stand for something more important in life. |
| 1:27.0 | Our question this week on the inquiry. |
| 1:30.0 | What is the point of lotteries? |
... |
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