Lottery Revenue – Is it Worth it?

Lottery is one of the most popular forms of gambling in the US, and it raises billions of dollars each year. State governments promote it as a way to boost state coffers without raising taxes or cutting public services, and they find broad popular support for it. But just how meaningful that revenue is in broader state budgets, and whether the trade-off to people losing their money is worth it, merits scrutiny.

It varies by state, but about 50%-60% of lottery ticket sales goes toward the prize pot; the rest is divvied up among various administrative and vendor costs and toward projects that each state designates. While the idea of winning a big jackpot sounds appealing, research shows that most people do not win the lottery. Rather, they end up buying more tickets or betting larger amounts in an attempt to increase their odds of winning. But the rules of probability mean that your chances of winning do not increase by playing more frequently or by purchasing more tickets.

People play the lottery for many reasons, but most of all because they want to get rich quick. They hope that if they can just hit the big jackpot, their problems will magically disappear. This is a form of covetousness, and it violates the Biblical commandment not to covet your neighbor’s property (Exodus 20:17). The problem with this hope is that it is false, and it will leave you empty-handed in the end (Ecclesiastes 5:10).