The Lottery and Its Moral and Social Implications

Lottery is the practice of offering tickets for sale with prizes in the form of money. The earliest recorded lotteries took place in the Low Countries in the 15th century, when towns used them to raise funds for walls and town fortifications as well as to help poor residents. Almost every state now has a lottery, and many more have established private ones.

Typically, a state legislates a monopoly for itself; establishes an agency or public corporation to run the lottery; launches with a small number of relatively simple games; and then, due to the constant pressure on revenues, progressively expands its operations with new games. Some of this expansion is driven by demographic changes (such as an increasing proportion of older people participating in the lottery); others is driven by a desire to differentiate the lottery from other gambling options, such as the keno game.

As the industry evolves, its moral and social implications grow. One major issue concerns the regressive nature of lottery proceeds: critics charge that, while some of the revenue may be “earmarked” for a particular purpose, the rest simply reduces the appropriations to that purpose from the general fund and therefore does not benefit lower-income groups any more than would an ordinary tax.

Another issue is the exploitation of the vulnerable: critics claim that, by encouraging compulsive gambling and preying on those most susceptible to its addictive power, the lottery undermines the integrity of society. Finally, there is the question of whether a state should be in the business of promoting gambling: is it an appropriate function for a government?