Case Study - Selling Hope

Gambling may seem harmless and an easy win with money, but it is really a tax on the poor and gives false hopes. The lottery and gambling is a tax on the poor in ways that people don’t see. As well as the tax, gambling gives people false hope.

The lottery offers a wonderful opportunity to possibly win millions of dollars. While this might seems amazing, it might not be as wonderful as imagined. In fact, maybe even the opposite might true as stated by numerous studies and research done since the 1970s.

The lottery is one of the oldest known game of chance, dating all the way back to 205 B.C. in the Han Dynasty. Being built upon pure luck, it has garnered attention all over the world in it's various forms of existence. After money began its association with the lottery in l443, it became even more popular worldwide. While existing in multiple forms, the most popular form of lottery is the randomly selected number method, where winnings are based on the correct numbers predicted. It is estimated that nearly half of the citizens living in the United States have participated in the lettery. An alarmingly high number ef the participants have admitted to lottery as their only chance ef being financially secure. what exactly are the edde of winnieg the Lottery? new is the probability te win increased? ?his mathematical inveetigatien hepes to shed light on these queries.

Other states lottery programs can be used as a blueprint to establish a lottery in the State of Alabama. As an example, the State of Oregon takes the lottery’s revenue and distributes it into four groups. These fours groups are “Public Education”, which receives 57%, 27% is given to the “Economic Development [and] Job Creation”, “Problem gambling treatment” receives the least, at a total of 1%, the last 15% is evenly divided into two groups of 7.5% which goes to both

The lottery in this country is a big past time for Americans. It gives hope to the hopeless and disappointment to a multitude of participants. A quick view of statistical information regarding the lottery shows that out of all people who take part in this country wide phenomenon, each individual person has a 1 in 175,223,510 chance of hitting the jackpot (AmericanStatisticalAssociation.org). The author of “Against The Odds and Against the Common Good”, argues that the state lotteries are “urging people to gamble”. Gloria Jimenez, of whom is the author of “Against The Odds and Against the Common Good”, creates assumptions that support her stance on her argument. Jimenez also uses the viewpoint from people who disagree with her logic, by stating various counter statements that contradict her stance. To fully understand Jimenez, we have to view the different factors of her stance on why states should not be urging people to gamble, assumptions that she makes to support her stance and countering views of people who don’t necessarily agree with her argument.

In her essay “Against the Odds, and Against the Common Good,” Gloria Jimenez asserts that states should not promote and advertize gambling. Jimenez lists many clever lottery slogans that are deceivingly interpreted. She also argues that these slogans advertise the advantages of gambling and playing the lottery because the money supposedly goes to things such as education and social service. Jimenez explains some arguments in favor of state-run lotteries, such as free participation and the creation of jobs, but argues that they are not relevant to the problem. She briefly touches on a statistic claiming that low income individuals are more likely to spend money on lottery tickets than their opposite, higher income

The lottery preys on the people it is supposed to be helping. It is funded through lottery players, which are usually low income minorities. One example that proves this is when Duke university economist Charles Clofelter and Phillip cook found that “ blacks, high school dropouts and people in the low income category” ( source D), are the heaviest

Gloria Jiménez wrote an essay at Tuffs University in 2003 named, “Against All Odds and Against the Common Good (Jiménez 116). The purpose of this essay is to persuade and support the following thesis: “Still, when all is said and done about lotteries bringing a vast amount of money into the lives of many people into the lives of a few, the states should not be in the business of urging people to gamble (Jiménez 116).” The evidence given in support of toward this argument does not point toward the proper thesis identified in the beginning of the essay.

Sales tax is regressive in nature, and dependent on taxpayers having enough confidence in the economy to spend their money. Sales tax is a consistent form of revenue for school funding, however the yield is inconsistent as the tax is not collected unless merchandise is purchased. Like the sales tax, the sin or sumptuary tax has an elastic yield and is only as stable as the economy. The sin tax applies to tobacco, alcohol and gambling, and is not considered a reliable source of public school funding (Sorenson & Goldsmith, p. 23 2013). Sorenson and Goldsmith describe the lottery as an assessment on legal gambling, and closely related to a sin tax. The public perception is that a state lottery is an excellent source of funding for state education programs, the reality is that the the lottery does nothing to fund educational initiatives. In fact, “there is no evidence that any state lottery has significantly supported or benefitted any school district or, for that matter, public education in

The following two paragraphs are a summary of Gloria Jimenez's essay Against the Odds and Against the Common Good. States should neither allow nor encourage state-run lotteries. There are five major arguments that people use to defend lotteries. One is that most lotteries are run honestly, but if gambling is harmful to society it is irrelevant to argue if they are honest or not. The second is that lotteries create jobs, but there are only a small handful of jobs that would be eliminated if lotteries were put out of business. Another argument that would support keeping lotteries is that, other than gambling addicts, people freely choose to buy lottery tickets. This is true, however, there are misleading advertisements that may cause people

In today’s society we perceive the lottery as being a great fortune brought down upon you by Lady Luck. It is a serendipitous event, even if the person has done nothing to earn it. One would never see the lottery as an unfortunate occasion that occurred in your life because it is supposed to bring prosperity into your life. Also, one would not dare to think that winning the lottery would bring such repercussions as injury or death. In the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the author could have used Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson as the town’s scapegoat due to their reluctance to change traditions, her horrible work ethic, and minority status as a woman.

“The Lottery” a short story by Shirley Jackson, features a small town during the time of their lottery. The lottery is an annual event, organized by Mr. Summers. It is a highly important time, as the whole town comes to the town square on the day of the lottery. The guidelines are quite simple: everyone takes a slip of paper out of the symbolic black box, and the slip of paper with the black mark carved on it, is the “lucky winner”. But their definition of the lottery is different一usually, a lottery is a valuable thing to win. But when Tessie Hutchinson, the “lucky winner” gets her reward by getting stoned to death by the rest of the villagers, it is clear that winning this lottery can't be a good affair... So what is the purpose of this lottery? Rather than discontinuing the lottery, the town continues with it because they don't want to upset an old tradition.

A lottery winner will begin to feel the need to flaunt their wealth because of their popularity. In result, a lottery winner will start buying flashy things for display and buying others overly expensive gifts to show how wealthy they are. Not considering the cost of their flashy and expensive objects, can cause a lottery winner to lose all their winnings in a matter of time. Therefore, the popularity given to a lottery winner isn’t beneficial because the fame and wealth results into dishonor and debt.

The history of lottery started long time ago in the early history of America. The online gov. info library states that “Lotteries were frequently used in colonial-era America to finance public works projects such as paving streets, constructing wharves, even building churches. In the 18th century, lotteries were used to finance construction of buildings at Harvard and Yale.” This shows that lottery has been around for a long time. Today, most states have adopted lottery system especially the computerized ones like mega millions and Powerball due to the world advancing technologically. This is so because these states have seen the growth of income that come from lotto. Each state has rules and time frames in which a prize can be claimed. Some states allows people to be anonymous like Ohio while others don’t have that option. For example, in Indiana winners have 90 days before they claim their prize and their identity is revealed. In cases where the winning ticket isn’t claimed, the state will get back all the money that it contributed to the unclaimed jackpot. The money is distributed according to state rules.

The Lottery begins like any other day. Clear and sunny skies, flowers blossoming, and green grass. Seemingly nothing out of the ordinary. Then people begin to gather in the town square. What is this lottery that is taking place? Do the people of the town agree with it? These questions can only be answered by exploring the minds of the people in the town.