The casting of lots for decisions and the distribution of fates have a long record in human history. In fact, the earliest known lottery slips come from the Chinese Han dynasty, from between 205 and 187 BC. They show drawings of keno symbols and numbers that would be drawn from a pool, the earliest evidence of a game of chance.<\/p>\n
State governments embraced lotteries in the 1960s as a way to fund education, veterans\u2019 health programs, and so on without raising taxes. But once a state has a lottery, it can\u2019t easily take it away. That\u2019s because, once a monopoly is established, it tends to expand over time, as a result of constant pressure for additional revenues.<\/p>\n
Lotteries are a classic example of government policy being made piecemeal and incrementally, with little or no overall view taken into account. This is partly why it\u2019s so hard for state officials to resist the pressure to increase lottery games over time.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve spoken with people who are serious about playing the lottery, who spend $50, $100 a week on tickets. These folks defy all of the assumptions that you might have going into the conversation \u2014 that they\u2019re irrational, that they\u2019ve been duped, that they\u2019re spending their money on a foolish gamble.<\/p>\n
In fact, it\u2019s important to remember that the vast majority of lottery players and the money they spend are middle-income people. The poor play at far lower rates, and they do so even though the revenue from their tickets is disproportionately low relative to their share of the population.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The casting of lots for decisions and the distribution of fates have a long record in human history. In fact, the earliest known lottery slips come from the Chinese Han dynasty, from between 205 and 187 BC. They show drawings of keno symbols and numbers that would be drawn from a pool, the earliest evidence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n