Why Should Lottery Tickets Be Abolished

Gambling and the lottery is a tax on the poor. The Texas Tech University did research on the people who played the Texas Lottery and discovered that people with no high school diploma spent a monthly average of $179. They also did a study on what the average is on college graduates and the spend an average of $49 a month. As well as the Texas Tech study other studies show that people who live in lower income ZIP-codes spend more money on the lottery than anyone else. Gambling and the lottery is a tax

Alabama is one of seven states that does not have a lottery system. Because of this, Alabama is missing out on millions of dollars per year. In fact, lottery systems generated $65.5 billion dollars in 2012, twenty-five of which goes directly to state funded projects (Isidore). That is an average of over a billion and a half dollars in revenue per state per year. If Alabama did approve a lottery system, the money it generated would go to education and healthcare. Alabama ranks forty-fifth and forty-sixth in these two areas respectively out of fifty states.

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 the first place, The Lottery and The Hunger Games both share the theme of tradition. The lotteries in both stories are annual traditions and have been going on for over seventy years. We know this because Jackson writes “Chips of wood, Mr. Summers had argued. had been all very well when the village was tiny, but now that the population was more than three hundred and likely to keep on growing, it was necessary to use something that would fit more easily into the black box.” In The Hunger Games Collins writes “Ladies and gentlemen, let the seventy-fourth Hunger Games begin – and may the odds be ever in your favor!” Both of these statements tell us that in both stories that these drawings are traditions, and have been going on for a long time. These traditions are both similar, but one difference is that in The Hunger Games they choose twenty kids who fight to the death, and in The Lottery, they only chose one person to stone to death. These traditions are both quite grim traditions should be stopped.

The Texas Lottery negatively impacts the people that play the lottery and the programs that are supposed to benefit from the proceeds. Because of the big dream of winning, the lottery has taken a toll on Texans. “People believe that the Texas Lottery is their only chance to strike it rich” (Buckland, 2010). There is not near enough money going towards the Texas Education

To what extent is the lottery beneficial to the North Carolina education system? What is a lottery? A lottery is used to raise money for the government and for people to win big money prizes. The North Carolina Education Lottery is a government-run organization that funds various education programs and school systems in North Carolina. If one hundred percent of lottery money went to education, it would only cover nineteen percent of the state’s total expenses for schools. The lottery is not beneficial to education in North Carolina if schools struggle to gain instructional supplies, and if the government has to cut spending for school funding levels to barely make it over the national average.

The Texas Lottery Commission is a fairly new entity in Texas that was established only 25 years ago. In history, Texas is known for its conservative values and policies, disregarding immoral practices such as gambling. In 1991, the Texas Legislature introduced an idea that could help change how Texas creates revenue to fund Texas education. The idea introduced was the establishment of a state Lottery, a form of gambling. Representatives introduced House Bill 54 to the House to establish a lottery system. It is later decided that Texans must vote to approve this new lottery. The citizens of Texas voted on this bill and the bill passed by a two-to-one margin. House Bill 54 is known at the Lottery Act of 1991. With the creation of the statewide

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

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

To support her side of the argument and to answer these counterarguments Jimenez share a few statistics. She tells us that the New York Times reported in 2002, that the state-run lotteries brought in a revenue of $20 billion dollars, and that this is only 4% of the states income. She also tells us about one study in a report from the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy that shows people who earned $10,000 a year bought almost three times as many lottery tickets than those who made $50,000 or more a year. This shows us that more poor people buy lotto tickets, so more poor people are paying the taxes that benefit education and social services.

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.