A lottery is a gambling game in which people buy tickets with numbered numbers. A random drawing is then held, and the person with the winning number wins a prize. In the United States, most states and Washington, D.C., run lotteries. People of all socioeconomic backgrounds play the lottery, but it is more popular among lower-income people. The middle and working classes tend to play less, while wealthy people play more. The lottery is also more popular among men than women, and older people play less. Moreover, lotteries are more common in states that have larger social safety nets.

State lotteries are often touted as a way to raise money for the poor or for public projects without burdening the general population with a high tax rate. This perception reflects the fact that, for much of history, it was standard practice in Europe and America to organize public lotteries to raise money for poor relief and for a wide range of other purposes. Lotteries were a type of “voluntary tax,” a concept that was introduced in the American colonies at the beginning of the Revolutionary War and that prompted Alexander Hamilton to argue that “everybody will be willing to hazard a trifling sum for the chance of considerable gain.”

But while the lottery may not be an onerous form of taxation, it is regressive, with the rich playing far more frequently than the poor. State lotteries do not disclose how much they make from each ticket sold, but a study by the University of California found that winning a jackpot on the Powerball lottery costs the average player $1,200 in federal and state taxes. This is a significant portion of an average income, and it is the most regressive way that people can gamble.

Lottery advertising is aimed at two audiences: the general population and the wealthy. Its main message is that playing the lottery is fun, but its secondary message is that if you win, the state will benefit from your good fortune. The latter message obscures the regressivity of lotteries by turning them into a civic duty and framing them as an alternative to illegal gambling.

But the lottery is also a business, and its primary function is to maximize revenues. To do that, it must attract a large audience of people who are willing to spend their hard-earned dollars on lottery tickets. This inevitably leads to a clash of interests. Is promoting gambling—which can have negative consequences for the poor, problem gamblers, and other vulnerable populations—an appropriate function for a state to perform? And is it an appropriate use of public funds, given the growing number of problems associated with state-sponsored gambling?