The Lottery Is A Regressive Tax On Stupidity

GAWKER: You don’t need John Oliver to tell you that state lotteries—or, as your mom calls them, “the stupidity tax”—are a bad deal, but you may not have realized the extent to which they suck. State lotteries raked in $68 billion last year, money that comes disproportionately from the poor and from problem gamblers. It’s worse in states with video poker: Players in Oregon lost an average of $2,564 last year. And even when someone hits one of those fabled millions-t0-one jackpots, it’s hardly the dream the commercials promise. They blow through it in a few years, or someone steals it, sues them for it, or tries to murder them—sometimes successfully. Horror stories abound. MORE