“A Lottery is a Taxation,/Upon all the Fools in Creation;/And Heav’n be praised,/It is easily raised,/Credulity’s always in Fashion:/For, Folly’s a Fund,/Will Never Lose Ground,/While Fools are so rife in the Nation.” According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, in 2006 American lotteries generated nearly $17 billion in revenue for state governments. The chance of winning the Mega Millions jackpot is about one in 176m. For comparison, an individual’s chance of being struck by lightning is around one in 750,000.

More than one American in five thinks that buying lottery tickets constitutes a sound retirement plan, according to a Tax Foundation study. And research carried out by the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis in seven American states found that much of the money spent on lottery tickets came from some form of government assistance (such as social security, unemployment or disability benefit).

Read The Full Article Here (via Economist)

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