chapter 7
LOTTERIES

A lottery is a game of chance in which people pay for the opportunity to win prizes. All money taken in by a lottery is pooled and used to award the winners and to pay the costs of administering the lottery. The money left over is profit. Lotteries are extremely popular around the world and are legal in more than a hundred countries.

In the United States all lotteries are operated by state governments that have granted themselves the sole right to do so. In other words, they are monopolies that do not allow any commercial lotteries to compete against them. The profits from U.S. lotteries are used solely to fund government programs. As of August 2004, lotteries operated in forty states and the District of Columbia. (See Figure 7.1.) This means that at that time, 90% of the U.S. population lived in a state with an operating lottery. In addition, lottery tickets can be legally purchased by any adult physically present in a lottery state, even if that adult does not reside in the state.

As shown in Figure 7.2, Americans wagered more than $44 billion in lotteries during fiscal year 2003 (July 2002–June 2003). U.S. lottery sales were up 6.6% from fiscal year 2002 and increased steadily between 1998 and 2003.

LOTTERY HISTORY

Early History

The drawing of lots to determine ownership or other rights is recorded in many ancient documents, including the Bible. The practice became common in Europe in the late fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries. Lotteries were first tied directly to the United States in 1612 when King James I of England created a lottery to provide funds to the Jamestown, Virginia, settlement, the first permanent British settlement in America. Lotteries were used by public and private organizations after that time to raise money for towns, wars, colleges, and public-works projects.

An early American lottery, conducted by George Washington in the 1760s, was designed to finance construction of the Mountain Road in Virginia. Benjamin Franklin was also a lottery advocate and supported their use to pay for cannons during the Revolutionary War. John Hancock ran a lottery to finance the rebuilding of Faneuil Hall in Boston. Although many lotteries are mentioned in early American documents, the 1999 report of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission (NGISC) describes most colonial-era lotteries as "unsuccessful." Amid concerns about the public harm of lotteries, in the 1820s New York became the first state to pass a constitutional prohibition against lotteries.

The Rise and Fall of Lotteries in the United States

The southern states relied on lotteries after the Civil War (1861–65) to finance Reconstruction. The Louisiana lottery, in particular, became widely popular. In 1868 the Louisiana Lottery Company was granted permission by the state legislature to operate as the state's only lottery provider. In exchange, the company agreed to pay $40,000 per year for twenty-five years to the Charity Hospital of New Orleans. The company was allowed to keep all other lottery revenues and to pay no taxes upon those revenues. The Louisiana lottery was very popular nationwide and brought in more than 90% of its revenue from out of state. It was also extremely profitable, returning a 48% profit to its operators.

In 1890 the U.S. Congress banned the mailing of lottery materials. The Louisiana lottery was abolished in 1895 after Congress passed a law against the transport of lottery tickets across state lines. Following its closure, the public learned that the lottery had been operated by a northern crime syndicate that regularly bribed legislators and committed widespread fraud and deception in its operations. The resulting scandal was huge and widely publicized. Public opinion turned against lotteries, and by the end of the nineteenth century, they were outlawed across the country.

FIGURE 7.1

Negative attitudes about gambling began to soften during the early twentieth century, particularly after the failure of Prohibition. The state of Nevada legalized casino gambling in the 1930s, and gambling for charitable purposes became more commonplace across the country. Still, lingering fears about fraud kept lotteries out of the picture for another two decades.

Rebirth in the 1960s

In the early 1960s the New Hampshire legislature began considering a state-run lottery as a means to raise revenue. The state had no sales or state income tax at that time and desperately needed money for education programs. A lottery bill was passed in 1963, and the lottery (called the New Hampshire Sweepstakes) began in 1964. The game was patterned after the Irish Sweepstakes, which was very popular at that time, and was much different from the lotteries of today. Drawings were held infrequently, and the largest prize was $100,000. Tickets sold for $3 each. The biggest prizes were tied to the outcomes of particular horse races at the Rockingham Park racetrack. Nearly $5.7 million was wagered during the lottery's first year.

The state of New York followed quickly, introducing its own lottery in 1967. This lottery was particularly successful, grossing $53.6 million during its first year alone. It also enticed residents from neighboring states to cross state lines and buy tickets. Twelve other states established lotteries during the 1970s (Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont). The lottery was firmly entrenched throughout the Northeast by the end of the decade. The reasons for this growth pattern are threefold. First, there was a desperate need to raise money for public projects without increasing taxes. Second, these states had large Catholic populations that were generally tolerant of gambling activities. Third, history has shown that states are most likely to start a lottery if one is already offered in a nearby state.

During the 1980s, lottery fever spread south and west with incredible swiftness. Seventeen states (Arizona, California,

FIGURE 7.2

Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Oregon, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin) plus the District of Columbia started lotteries. Six more states started lotteries during the 1990s (Georgia, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Texas). They were joined in the early 2000s by South Carolina, Tennessee, and North Dakota.

LOTTERY GAMES

Early lottery games were simple raffles in which a person purchased a ticket preprinted with a number. The player might have had to wait for weeks for a drawing to determine if the ticket was a winner. These types of games were called passive drawing games. Passive drawing games were the dominant type of lottery game in 1973 but were nonexistent by 1997. Over time, consumers have demanded more exciting games that provide quicker payoffs and more betting options. Table 7.1 describes the common types of lottery games staged today.

La Fleur's 2004 World Lottery Almanac lists the types of lottery games offered by various states as of mid- 2003. (La Fleur's is a Maryland-based research firm that publishes statistics on the world's lotteries.) Nearly all states operating lotteries offered cash lotto and instant games. Most offer other numbers games, such as three-digit and four-digit games. Pull tabs, spiel, keno, and video lottery games are much less common. In general, keno and video lottery games are considered casino-type games. This makes them more controversial and generally less acceptable to the public than traditional lottery games, like lotto.

Most lotto tickets sell for $1 each. Each dollar buys a chance to choose a small set of numbers out of a larger set of numbers. Drawings are held once or twice per week to determine the winning numbers. In 2002 Connecticut, Georgia, and Michigan launched new lottery games that can be played for pocket change, anywhere from 25 cents to 99 cents.

Today many lottery games are online, using a computer network. Retail outlets have computer terminals that are linked by phone lines to a central computer at the lottery commission. The central computer records the wagers as they are made. Retailers can sell tickets for online games and validate winning tickets. The computer network is a private dedicated network accessible only by lottery officials and retailers. Thus, online lottery games differ from the Internet, which anyone can access. Lotto, keno, and numbers games are all conducted as online games. Players can either choose their numbers themselves or allow the computer to select numbers randomly, an option known as "Quick Pick."

Most lotto drawings are televised live. In addition, some states air lottery game shows in which contestants compete for money and prizes. The California lottery's game show, The Big Spin, has aired since 1985. Contestants are chosen through lottery drawings or special promotions. During the thirty-minute show, contestants spin a big wheel in an attempt to win cash prizes while family and friends cheer from the audience.

Lottery winners generally have six months to one year to collect their prizes, depending on state rules. The top prize in a lotto game is called the jackpot. In most lotto games a jackpot that is not won rolls over to the next drawing, increasing the jackpot each time. The most popular lotteries are often those in which a jackpot has rolled over several times and therefor has grown to an unusually large amount.

Most states allow players to choose in advance how a jackpot will be paid to them—either all at once or in installments. Either way, taxes are subtracted from the prize. Jackpots paid all at once are called cash lump-sum prizes. Annuities are jackpots paid out over many years—usually twenty or twenty-five. Even those who choose annuities can pursue ways to receive most of their money all at once. Businesses engaged in cash-flow financing often purchase the rights to annuities from lottery winners and pay them a discounted lump sum in exchange. For example, a $1 million jackpot winner might choose to collect the winnings in installments of $36,000 per year for twenty years. This totals $720,000. A broker would probably offer the winner about $500,000 in immediate cash in exchange for the future rights to the monthly installments.

Scratch Games

In 1974 Massachusetts became the first state to offer an instant lottery game based on scratch-off tickets. Today, games involving scratch tickets (or "scratchers," as they are called in some states) are extremely popular. Lottery

TABLE 7.1

organizations offer many different scratch games with various themes. For example, during the summer of 2004 the Connecticut lottery had more than one hundred scratch games ongoing.

Scratch games run for a specified period of time, usually for several months to up to a year. The top prize amounts are often hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, a wide variety of prizes are offered in these games besides money, including merchandise, trips, vehicles, and tickets to sporting events and concerts. In 2004 the Texas lottery offered scratch players a chance to instantly win a Corvette convertible. A Missouri lottery scratch game gave away sixty trips to Las Vegas, plus $500 in spending money. The winning tickets included payment by the lottery commission of federal and state income taxes on the value of the prizes.

Many lotteries have teamed with sports franchises and other companies to provide popular products as prizes. Lotteries in several states during the early 2000s offered scratch games featuring Harley-Davidson motorcycles as the top prizes. The use of licensed brand names in lottery games has become very popular. Most brand-name promotions feature famous celebrities, sports figures/teams, or cartoon characters. Lottery officials seek out joint merchandising deals in which companies provide prizes for scratch games. The companies benefit through product exposure and advertising. The lotteries benefit when companies share in advertising costs.

The latest trend in instant games is the sale of high profit point (HPP) tickets. Traditional scratch tickets sell for $1 each. HPP tickets are priced as high as $20 each and are usually part of a holiday or themed promotion. Most states offer several $5 and $10 ticket games, particularly around Christmas and other gift-giving holidays. In 2002 the Connecticut lottery was the first in the United States to offer a $30 instant ticket. The HPP tickets appeal to many scratch players because they offer more valuable prizes and payouts than regular-priced tickets. Lottery officials hope they will attract more affluent players to the games.

In 2001 the California lottery was sued for continuing to sell scratch-game tickets after the top prizes had been awarded. In other words, people bought scratch-game tickets not knowing that there was no chance for them to win the most valuable prizes. In January 2002 California lottery officials apologized for their actions and promised to stop selling instant-win tickets in the future after the top prizes were awarded. The state also set up a second-chance drawing for people holding losing scratch tickets from the earlier promotion.

A similar problem occurred in Colorado in 1997 after a Colorado Springs newspaper reported that more than $2 million in tickets were sold after the grand prizes had already been awarded. A lawsuit was filed against the state in 2000 by a woman with losing scratch tickets from the Luck of the Zodiac game. A judge dismissed the case because the plaintiff had not pursued her complaint through lottery administrative channels first. The ruling was appealed, and in August 2002 the state appeals court reinstated the lawsuit. The woman's lawyers hope to have the suit certified as a class-action suit on behalf of all scratch players who played the game. Similar lawsuits have been filed in Arizona and the state of Washington.

Most lotteries operate a toll-free number or Web site that provides information on scratch game prize claims. Patrons can find out which prizes have already been awarded and which prizes remain to be claimed.

Second-Chance Games

Sometimes even nonwinning lottery tickets have value. Most state lotteries run occasional second-chance drawings, and even third-chance drawings, in which holders of nonwinning tickets for particular games can still try for cash or prizes. The Colorado lottery held a second-chance drawing during the summer of 2004 in which holders of nonwinning Lucky Dog scratch tickets could win money for animal-related nonprofit organizations and themselves. Other state lotteries offer new vehicles, concert tickets, and a variety of other prizes.

Video Lottery Games

Video lottery games are computer games played on video lottery terminals (VLTs). VLTs are essentially slot machines (video gaming devices) that are monitored and controlled by a central computer system that is overseen by a state's lottery agency. Thus, VLT profits (all or in part) benefit state lotteries.

According to La Fleur's 2004 World Lottery Almanac, VLTs were operated in only eight states in 2003—Delaware, Louisiana, Montana, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and West Virginia. Video lottery games are highly profitable. During fiscal year 2003, nearly 42,000 VLTs were in operation with a net income of $2.4 billion.

VLTs in Louisiana, Montana, and South Dakota are owned by private entities. Those in Rhode Island are leased by the state to private operators. VLTs in the other states are owned by state lottery commissions. VLTs in Delaware, New Mexico, New York, and Rhode Island are only allowed at racetracks. Profits from these VLTs are split between the racetracks and the state lotteries.

In 2001 the state of New York passed legislation allowing the installation of video lottery games at racetracks in the state. Although the VLTs finally began operating in early 2004, they have been fought in lawsuits. In July 2004 a state appeals court ruled that the legislation authorizing VLTs at racetracks was unconstitutional. New York's constitution requires lottery proceeds to benefit education programs. Some VLT revenue was going to the racetrack owners and operators and to the racing industry. This diversion of lottery revenue was considered unconstitutional by the court. As of August 2004 the state's VLTs were still operating while the ruling is appealed to a higher court.

In general, video lottery games are controversial because many people consider them "hard-core" gambling. They allow continuous gambling for large sums of money, as opposed to lotto play, which features drawings only once or twice a week. Opponents of video lottery games contend that they are much more addictive than traditional lottery games because of their availability and instant payoffs. They also have special appeal to children and adolescents, who are already accustomed to playing video games.

Multistate Games

During the 1980s, lottery officials realized that multi-state lotteries could offer higher payoffs than sole-state lotteries because the costs of running one game could be shared by numerous states. Table 7.2 lists the states that operate lotteries and participate in multistate lotteries.

powerball. The Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) was formed in 1988 as a nonprofit association of states offering lotteries. It is entirely owned and operated by the member-state lotteries. The MUSL administers various games, the best known of which is called Powerball. Powerball is a lotto game in which five numbers are selected out of fifty-three numbers, and then a separate number is selected out of forty-two numbers, for a total of six numbers. The first Powerball drawing was held on April 22, 1992. Drawings are held twice weekly. In December 2002 Powerball paid out the largest jackpot ever awarded to a single winner—$314.9 million. It was won by a West Virginia contractor who reported that he only played the lottery when the jackpot exceeded $100 million.

TABLE 7.2

As of August 2004 MUSL had thirty members. Each member state offers at least one MUSL game, and twenty-eight of them offer the Powerball game. (See Table 7.2.) Each member state keeps 50% of its own Powerball ticket sales. The rest is paid out in prizes. The profits from all MUSL games are retained by the individual states.

mega millions. Another popular multistate game is called Mega Millions. It is played by eleven states, as shown in Table 7.2. Players choose six numbers from two separate number pools: five numbers from 1 to 52, and one number from 1 to 52. All six numbers must match to win the jackpot. Drawings are held twice weekly.

Mega Millions was formerly known as the Big Game. The first Big Game ticket was sold on August 31, 1996, and the first drawing took place on September 6, 1996. The Big Game became very popular and soon offered jackpots in excess of $50 million. As of late 2002, it held the record for the largest jackpot ever offered in a North American lottery—$363 million in May 2000. That jackpot was split by two winners, one in Michigan and one in Illinois. Overall, the Big Game had an average jackpot of $47 million during its run.

The Big Game was plagued by lagging sales during fiscal year 2001. Average sales had dropped by 34% from the year before. At that time, the Big Game accounted for approximately 6% of total lottery sales in the states in which it was offered. The game operators wanted to capture a bigger market and so renamed the game Mega Millions and increased the initial jackpot to $10 million, twice what it was for the Big Game. The lure of higher jackpots proved to be a strong sales incentive. Ticket sales increased dramatically.

constitutional questions. In January 2002 church groups and other lottery opponents sued the state of Ohio over a bill passed the month before allowing the state to join the Mega Millions lottery. The lawsuit claimed that the state's constitution required Ohio to run its own lottery and that the bill would transfer this authority to other states. Ohio officially joined Mega Millions in May 2002 in hopes of raising $41 million annually to overcome a $1.5 billion budget gap.

In July 2002 a judge ruled that Ohio's participation in Mega Millions was not unconstitutional because the state would retain sufficient control over the lottery to satisfy the constitution. However, he did overturn a part of the bill that would have allowed the state to divert the money raised away from the Department of Education into the general budget. The Ohio Constitution specifies that lottery revenues must go toward education programs. The bill writers had tried to circumvent this requirement with an accounting maneuver that would have initially assigned the revenues to the Department of Education but then allowed them to be taken out for other purposes. The judge ruled that this practice did violate the state's constitution.

New York's decision to join Mega Millions in May 2002 was also challenged in court on constitutional grounds. The plaintiffs claimed that participation in the multistate lottery diverted lottery profits away from education programs. In July 2004 a state appeals court ruled that the administrative costs of participating in the lottery were insignificant and did not constitute a diversion of funds.

INTERNATIONAL LOTTERY GAMES

Lotteries operate in more than one hundred countries around the world. According to La Fleur's, worldwide lottery sales were $160 billion during 2003. The North American Association for State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL) reports on its Web site (www.naspl.org) that U.S. lotteries accounted for $45.3 billion (or 28% of this total). Canadian lotteries had sales of $8.1 billion (Canadian), meaning that North America accounted for about one-third of worldwide lottery sales during 2003. North American sales were up 7% from $50.7 billion reported for 2002.

More than seventy-five government and private lotteries operated in Europe during 2003. The European market generally accounts for 40–45% of world lottery sales. According to Scientific Games Corporation the top five lotteries in terms of sales during 2003 were in Spain, Japan, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom. In 2004 Spain, France, and the United Kingdom teamed together to start the Euro Millions lottery.

One of the most popular lotteries in the world is the Spanish lotto, El Gordo ("the fat one"). El Gordo has been conducted in Spain since 1812. Drawings are held four times a year, and the December drawing, called the Navidad (or Christmas) Lottery, is the largest single gambling event in the world. The lottery is operated by Organismo Nacional de Loterías y Apuestas del Estado (ONLAE). The number of tickets printed is limited to 66,000, meaning that the odds of winning a prize are about one in six. Winnings are paid out in a lump sum and are not taxed by the Spanish government. The Christmas Lottery has a 70% payout rate, much higher than most European and North American lotteries. In December 2003 the total prize for the El Gordo lottery reached $1.3 billion. The jackpot was only $470 million, but more than 10,000 prizes were awarded in all.

Beginning in the late 1990s several U.S. lottery agencies began talks with foreign countries regarding development of an international lottery. The International Lottery Alliance was led by Edward J. Stanek, director of the Iowa lottery. By April 2003 at least thirty states and dozens of foreign countries were negotiating terms for an international lottery (tentatively called Super Pool). It was expected to offer jackpots of up to $500 million. There were many logistical problems to overcome including setting a location for drawings and dealing with time zone and currency differences.

In April 2004 the Indianapolis Star reported that the deal had fallen apart after several European nations backed out in protest over the U.S. invasion of Iraq ("War Dampens Indiana's Hopes of International Lottery," April 3, 2004). The remaining foreign countries also backed out amid fears that U.S. residents would dominate ticket sales and prizes without more international participation.

LOTTERY ADMINISTRATION

States differ in how they administer lotteries within their governments. In 1998 the Council of State Governments (CSG) found that all but four lotteries operating at that time were directly administered by a state lottery board or commission. The lotteries in Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, and Louisiana were operated by quasi-governmental or privatized lottery corporations. The CSG reported that lottery oversight is most frequently performed by the lottery board or commission or by an executive branch agency. Enforcement authority regarding fraud and abuse rested with the attorney general's office, state police, or the lottery commission in most states. The amount of oversight and control that each state legislature has over its lottery agency differs from state to state.

Although lotteries are a multimillion-dollar business, lottery commissions employ only a few thousand people nationwide. Lottery commissions set up, monitor, and run the games offered in their states, but the vast majority of lottery sales are at retail outlets, such as stores, gas stations, bars, and so forth. These retailers contract with state lottery commissions to sell their games. In exchange, the retailers receive sales commissions on all tickets sold and cash bonuses for selling winning tickets.

Retailers

According to the NASPL Web site, nearly 186,000 retailers were selling lottery tickets around the country in 2003. California had the most retailers (19,000), followed by Texas (16,395) and New York (15,300). Approximately three-fourths of all lottery retailers offer online services. Approximately half of all lottery retailers are convenience stores. Other outlets include various kinds of stores, nonprofit organizations (churches and fraternal organizations), service stations, restaurants and bars, bowling alleys, and newsstands.

Retailers are attracted to lottery sales because they increase traffic and earn commissions for the operators. Outlets that sell winning jackpot tickets receive cash bonuses from the lottery, are often featured in media stories, and receive other public attention. Those that become known "lucky" places to purchase lottery tickets can greatly enhance their business.

Because lottery tickets are often an impulse purchase, they are usually sold at the front of the store near the checkout area. This also allows store operators to keep an eye on ticket vending machines to prevent play by underage customers. Increasingly, convenience stores offer pay-at-the-pump gasoline sales. This is likely to decrease in-store traffic and have a negative impact on lottery ticket sales. Lottery officials in Indiana want to develop a method for selling and printing tickets at the gas pumps to overcome this problem. Lottery officials in South Dakota have expressed interest in selling lottery tickets in massmerchandise stores like Wal-Mart and Kmart.

Lottery personnel and retailers work together to ensure that merchandising and advertising are effective for both. The New Jersey lottery launched an Internet site during 2001 just for its lottery retailers. On the site, retailers can read about game promotions, ask questions of lottery officials online, and access individual sales data. During 2001 Louisiana implemented a lottery retailer optimization program, in which lottery officials supply retailers with demographic data to help them increase sales and improve marketing techniques. Although most states do not limit the number of retailers that can sell lottery tickets, they usually try to space them out to ensure that each obtains a good market share.

According to the Web site of the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS; www.nacsonline.com), roughly half of all lottery sales during 2001 were in convenience stores. NACS says that nearly 80% of U.S. convenience stores sell lottery tickets. The typical commission paid to their retailers is 5 to 8%.

The NACS reported in its 1997 NACS Lottery Study that frequent lottery customers spend more than twice as much per visit as nonlottery customers ($7.07 as opposed to $3.47). Even infrequent lottery customers spend $4.80 per visit. The study found that lottery customers purchased at least one other nonlottery item in 95% of their store visits. Lottery customers also shop more times per week at convenience stores than do nonlottery customers. More than half of the customers surveyed (55%) felt that lottery ticket availability was important in their choice of store. Lottery tickets ranked fifth among store items in generating other impulse sales (behind household items, beer, cigarettes, and magazines/newspapers).

However, NACS also noted that the average cost of handling a lottery transaction is 39 cents higher than that of a nonlottery transaction. Lottery tickets actually have a lower margin than most other convenience store items, particularly those pushed at the front counter. Store managers report complaints from lottery officials about merchandise such as batteries and candy hiding lottery advertising from customer view.

Advertising

Just like any other business, lotteries aggressively market their products. Some of their best advertisements are provided free through media coverage of jackpot winners. The lotteries also allot a portion of their operating budget to advertising.

According to the NASPL, lottery states spend hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising. A 1998 study of lottery marketing plans found that the most commonly used themes relate to the size of the prize or the jackpot and the fun and excitement of playing the lottery. (See Table 7.3.)

Lottery advertising is sometimes controversial, particularly when ads focus on winning and neglect to mention the odds against the players. The NGISC's final report from 1999 criticizes lottery advertising, saying "much of it is misleading, even deceptive." The report complains that lottery advertisements rarely explain the poor odds of winning big prizes and that most imply the chances of

TABLE 7.3

winning are quite good. The NGISC report is also critical of lottery advertisements that focus attention on the jackpot amount but list the odds of winning any prize, including far smaller ones.

La Fleur's 2004 World Lottery Almanac reports the advertising restrictions on various state lotteries. Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have no restrictions on the types of advertising that can be done, while fifteen have various restrictions, including no minors in lottery ads (Kansas), no ads for VLTs (Oregon), and inclusion of the odds of winning (Vermont, Oregon, Connecticut, and Colorado).

In February 2004 economist Edwin Rubenstein with the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs complained that lottery states spend more on lottery advertising than any other message geared toward the public, such as "Just Say No" or "Stay in School" ("A Closer Look at the Lottery," February 1, 2004). Rubenstein estimates that lottery advertising takes up 1–2% of lottery sales.

LOTTERY PLAYER DEMOGRAPHICS

A national poll conducted by the Gallup Organization in December 2003 found that 49% of adults had purchased a lottery ticket within the previous year. (See Figure 7.3.) The percentage is the lowest recorded since 1989. In 1999 a Gallup poll found that 15% of teenagers aged thirteen to seventeen had purchased a lottery ticket within the previous year.

In general, public opinion polls consistently show high approval ratings for lotteries as a means of raising

FIGURE 7.3

public funds. The results of a lottery question from the most recent national gambling poll conducted in 1999 by the Gallup Organization are summarized in Table 7.4 and compared to previous years. Approval of state lotteries for cash prizes has remained strong since the late 1980s, with 75% of adults and 82% of teenagers expressing favorable opinions in 1999.

Lottery demographics were reported in the October/November 2001 issue of Lottery Insights, the official publication of the NASPL. The article uses data from the NGISC and the National Opinion Research Center (NORC). The study found that just more than half of the U.S. adult population purchased at least one lottery ticket during 1998. Those aged thirty to sixty-four were most likely to purchase lottery tickets. However, the amount spent on lottery tickets varied by age. People aged fifty to sixty-four spent the most—an average of $6.72 the last time they purchased lottery tickets. The youngest (eighteen to twenty-nine) and oldest (sixty-five and up) adults spent the least amount.

In 1998 NORC interviewed nearly 3,000 people as part of a survey on lottery participation and spending in the United States. The final results represent data on 2,867 people. The respondents were characterized by demographics and asked about their lottery play during the previous year, month, and week. The survey indicated that approximately half of the respondents had played the lottery during the previous year. However, researchers discovered

TABLE 7.4

that only 5% of the players accounted for 54% of the group's total lottery spending. The vast majority of the group's lottery spending (82%) was due to the play of only 20% of the respondents. The survey concluded that a relatively small group of "heavy" players are responsible for most lottery sales.

Some characteristics of the heaviest lottery players are listed in Table 7.5. The NORC survey found that:

• Men are slightly more likely to play lottery games than women.
• Participation is lowest for those aged sixty-four and up.
• Single people spend less on lottery tickets than married or divorced people.
• Per capita lottery spending is highest for those aged forty-five to sixty-four years.
• Participation rates do not differ significantly by race or ethnicity. However, per capita spending by African-Americans is higher than for any other group.
• Per capita spending is higher for those respondents who did not complete high school and for low-income households.

NORC respondents did not have overly rosy views about payout and win rates. Most (63%) thought that lotteries paid out less than 25% of total sales as prizes. (The actual payout percentage is around 50%.) The vast majority (86%) of those who had played the lottery during the previous year indicated that they had lost more money than they had won. Only 8% of respondents believed that they had made money playing the lottery.

TABLE 7.5

GTECH Corporation is a major supplier of equipment to the gambling industry. The company conducted its most recent national survey on gaming during July 2000. According to the survey of 1,200 adults nationwide, lotteries were considered an acceptable form of entertainment by 65% of respondents. As Figure 7.4 shows, nearly three-quarters of those surveyed were in favor of states operating lotteries. Favor was highest among those under thirty-five years old, who had an 83% favorability rating. Approval decreased with age, as 72% of those aged thirty-five to fifty-four favored state lotteries, as opposed to 63% of those aged fifty-five and up.

Seventy percent of survey respondents in lottery states in 2000 indicated that they would vote in favor of continuing their lottery. Support at the ballot box is slightly higher among Democrats (70%) than among Republicans (61%). In nonlottery states, the survey shows that 66% of respondents would vote in favor of a state lottery if given the chance.

Fifty-four percent of those asked believed that lotteries keep taxes lower. (See Figure 7.5.) As shown in Figure 7.6, lotteries are favored over higher taxes as a means of raising revenue by more than a three-to-one margin. Survey respondents provided the following as the main benefits of lotteries:

• Provide funding for education and other programs (42%)
• Entertainment/fun/can win money (15%)
• Keep taxes lower (15%)
• Jobs/economy/revenue (8%)

Education was deemed the most appropriate use of lottery proceeds by 54% of respondents, compared with roads/public transportation (17%), long-term care for the elderly (8%), and protecting the environment (7%). Support for education as the most appropriate use of lottery revenue declined with age. Seventy percent of those asked believed that some lottery proceeds should fund research into understanding and helping problem gamblers.

Survey respondents were more likely to play the lottery if proceeds go to specific causes. Sixty-five percent of those asked would be more likely to play the lottery if funds were set aside for a specific cause rather than going into a state's general fund. When asked about problems facing the lottery industry, 27% of respondents indicated that insufficient prize money is the most important problem. Improper use of lottery proceeds was selected by 24% of respondents. Other problems included underage gambling (12%), lack of funding for research into problem gambling (11%), and too much advertising (5%).

The disadvantages or weaknesses of state-sponsored lotteries that survey respondents named are as follows:

• People wasting money who cannot afford to do so (33%)
• Misuse of lottery money (24%)
• Compulsive gambling (17%)
• Players not winning enough money (13%)
• Promotion of gambling (10%)

GROUP PLAY

It has become quite common for groups of people to pool their money and buy lottery tickets, particularly for very large jackpots. According to California lottery officials, 30% of that state's jackpots are won by multiple winners on one ticket. Group wins are beneficial to the lotteries from a public relations standpoint. They generate more media coverage than solo wins and expose a wider group of friends, relatives, and coworkers to the idea that lotteries are winnable.

In 2001 the California lottery started the Lotto Captain program to help so-called group leaders manage lotto pools. Lotto captains have access to a special Web site that gives them tips on organizing and running group play. They can download and print forms that help them track players, games, dates, and jackpots. As an incentive, Lotto Captains can participate in special drawings for cash and prizes. Lottery officials are extremely pleased with the program's success, as far more people enrolled to be captains than was expected. These are hard-core players who promote lottery games, recruit new players, and provide valuable feedback about lottery promotions. In January 2004 the Missouri Lottery started is own Lottery Captain program for group-play organizers.

Still, pooling arrangements, even if between only two people, can lead to all kinds of legal headaches if a group actually wins a jackpot.

In May 2001 a group of twenty-three cabdrivers working at Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport won a $49 million jackpot in the Big Game. Before the money could be paid out, it was frozen by lottery officials when seven other cabbies filed a lawsuit contending that they were also part of the winning lottery pool. The man heading the pool was accused of sloppy record keeping in regards to who was participating in each lottery. In addition, the plaintiffs contend that they regularly participated in the pool, and it was understood that small amounts won would be pooled together to buy more tickets in the next lottery. They believe that even though they did not directly contribute to the pool that purchased the big jackpot ticket, they are still entitled to a share of the money.

Also in 2001, a New York judge awarded $1.6 million to a Brooklyn woman who sued her former live-in boyfriend for breach of oral contract after he secretly collected a $7 million jackpot from a lottery ticket they had purchased while together in 1999. Although the defendant denied ever agreeing to split lottery winnings with the plaintiff, a clerk at the store where the ticket was purchased testified to the contrary. The plaintiff was awarded half of the after-tax amount of the jackpot. The defendant also had to pay $200,000 in punitive damages and attorney fees.

A California woman lost all of her $1.3 million jackpot in 2001 after a court found that she had fraudulently concealed the award from her husband. After winning, the woman sought advice from lottery officials about how to conceal the award from her husband. They advised her to get divorced before her first annuity check arrived. The woman did so and never declared the money as an asset during the divorce proceedings. This lack of disclosure was ultimately discovered by the ex-husband. Under California law, a court can award 100% of an undisclosed asset, plus attorneys' fees, to one spouse if the other spouse commits oppression, fraud, or malice during divorce proceedings.

WHY DO PEOPLE PLAY LOTTERIES?

A lottery is a unique gambling event because it costs only a small amount of money to get a chance to win a very large jackpot, albeit at very long odds. The huge jackpot is the main selling feature of the lottery. Rollover jackpots spur ticket sales. As more people buy tickets, the jackpot grows, while the odds of winning decrease. However, this does not deter ticket sales—sales actually increase under these circumstances. Lottery players often go against the statistical odds, playing in games with large rewards but small probabilities of winning rather than games with small rewards and better probabilities of winning. The lottery lure seems to be that winning a multimillion-dollar jackpot would be life-changing.

Lotteries are successful because people are ignorant of or choose to ignore the laws of probability. For example, the odds of choosing six numbers correctly out of forty-nine are approximately fourteen million to one. Ian Stewart, professor of mathematics at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, once said that lotto games "are a tribute to public innumeracy" ("It Probably Won't Be You," Times Higher Education Supplement, April 12, 1996).

A 1998 study performed on behalf of European lotteries (Mark D. Griffiths and Richard T. A. Wood, Lottery Gambling and Addiction: An Overview of European Research, European State Lottery and Toto Association, Lausanne, Switzerland, 1999) looked at why people continue to play the lottery despite the long odds. The following reasons were given:

• The lure of a very large jackpot in exchange for a very small investment
• Successful advertising
• Publicity about jackpot winners
• Ignorance of probability theory
• Televised drawings
• Overestimating of positive outcomes and underestimating of negative ones
• The credibility of government backing
• Belief in players' own luck

One of the most interesting theories of the study concerns the role of entrapment in lottery play. Many people select the same numbers week after week. For example, a United Kingdom newspaper reported that 67% of people surveyed chose the same lottery numbers each week, mostly based on birthdates, address numbers, and lucky numbers. As time goes by and their numbers are not selected, these people do not become discouraged. Instead, they think their chances of winning are getting better. This mind-set is called "the gambler's fallacy." It is a common myth that the probability of winning increases the longer a losing streak lasts. Often players experience near-misses, in which two or more of their numbers are drawn during the jackpot drawing. This only convinces them that they are getting closer to the big win. They become increasingly entrapped in playing their numbers and fear skipping even one drawing.

The study also reports on a 1996 survey that found that 22% of respondents believe they will win a lottery jackpot at some point. The lotteries themselves feed the illusion that winning is commonplace by encouraging widespread media coverage of winners and their stories.

THE EFFECTS OF LOTTERIES

Economic Effects

Proponents of lotteries mostly use economic arguments to justify their positions. Lotteries provide state governments with a relatively easy way to enhance their revenues without imposing more taxes. Lotteries are also financially beneficial to the many small businesses that sell lottery tickets and to larger companies that participate in merchandising campaigns or provide advertising or computer services. Finally, lotteries provide cheap entertainment to people who want to play, while raising money for the betterment of all.

Lottery opponents also have economic arguments. They contend that the role of lotteries in funding state programs is actually quite small. Lotteries contribute only a small percentage of total state revenues. In addition, they cost money to advertise and operate. Lotteries lure people into parting with their money under false hopes. Opponents contend that those targeted come particularly from lower income brackets and may not be able to afford to gamble.

the division of lottery money. Lottery money can be categorized as sales, prizes, administrative costs, retailer commissions, and state profits. The sales amount is the total amount taken in by the lottery. In general, 50–60% of U.S. lottery sales are paid out as prizes to winners. Administrative costs for advertising, employee salaries, and other operating expenses usually account for 1–10% of sales. On average, retailers collect 5–7% of sales in the form of commissions and approximately 2% as bonuses for selling winning tickets. The remaining 30–40% of sales is profit turned over to the state.

U.S. state lotteries had approximately $45 billion in sales for fiscal year 2003. A fiscal year is defined differently from state to state, but in most states it runs from July 1 to June 30. Thus, fiscal year 2003 is the twelve-month period from June 30, 2002, to July 1, 2003. According to the NASPL national sales were up 6.8% in fiscal year 2003 from the previous year's sales of $42.4 billion. By comparison sales increased by 9% from 2001 to 2002.

According to sales figures reported by the NASPL for fiscal years 2001 through 2003 for each state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, nine states reported declining sales for 2003 compared to 2002. These states were California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Vermont. Delaware had the sharpest decline (6.8%). By contrast four jurisdictions that were operating lotteries in 2002 and 2003 had sales increases in excess of 20%. These were West Virginia (up 27.5%), Puerto Rico (up 26.4%), Florida (up 23.1%), and Missouri (up 21.1%).

According to the NASPL during fiscal year 2003 New York had the highest lottery sales ($5.4 billion), followed by Massachusetts ($4.2 billion) and Texas ($3.1 billion). These three states accounted for 28% of national lottery sales. In total fifteen states had lottery sales in excess of $1 billion during 2003.

According to La Fleur's, total U.S. sales for all lotteries from the time of their inception through fiscal year 2003 add up to $556 billion. About $296 billion was paid in prizes over the same period, and $191 billion was collected by state governments.

The New York lottery has the largest cumulative sales, $57.6 billion since its inception in 1967. It has also achieved the highest profits of any state government (nearly $23 billion). New Jersey had the highest percentage return to any state government from a lottery (41%). Massachusetts has paid out the most in cumulative prizes (nearly $31 billion).

The states allocate their lottery profits in different ways. Table 7.6 describes each state's cumulative allocation of profits from each lottery's inception to June 2002. The list does not include lotteries that began during or after 2002 (South Carolina, Tennessee, and North Dakota).

retailer payments. According to La Fleur's, the average prize payout from each state lottery's inception to fiscal year 2003 is 53% of cumulative sales. The average state profit is 34%. Thus, administrative costs and retailer payments account for an average of 13% of cumulative lottery sales.

The primary means of retailer compensation is a commission on each ticket sold. In other words, a lottery retailer keeps a certain percentage of the money taken in from lottery sales. Most states also have incentive-based programs for retailers that meet particular sales criteria. For example, the Wisconsin lottery pays retailers a bonus for increasing ticket sales by particular amounts. The state implemented the program in January 2000 in response to declining sales and a drop in the number of lottery retailers. Lottery officials believe that the incentive program is more effective than an increase in retailer commission at increasing sales. The incentive program encourages retailers to ask customers if they would like to buy lottery tickets. Retailers that sell a winning ticket in Wisconsin receive 2% of the value of the ticket (up to $100,000).

unclaimed lottery winnings. It is estimated that unclaimed lottery winnings add up to hundreds of millions of dollars each year. In early 2004 the California lottery

TABLE 7.6

turned over more than $15 million from an unclaimed lotto jackpot to educational programs in the state. According to the California lottery more than $530 million in unclaimed prizes have been forwarded to public schools since 1985.

Unclaimed winnings are allocated differently by each state. Some states require by law that unclaimed winnings be returned to the prize pool. This is the case with the New York lottery. Other states allocate such funds to lottery administrative costs or to specific state programs. For example, the Texas lottery turns over unclaimed prizes to funds that benefit hospital research and payment of indigent health care.

state budgets. Lottery revenues make up a very small portion of state budgets. One study (Charles T. Clotfelter et al., State Lotteries at the Turn of the Century: Report to the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, 1999) found that lottery revenues comprise anywhere from 0.67% to 4.07% of their states' general revenue. The average portion was approximately 2.2%. This compares with an average of 25% each for general sales taxes and income taxes.

taxes and other withholding from lottery winnings. Lottery winnings over a certain value are taxable as personal income. All prizes awarded greater than $600 are reported by the lotteries to the Internal Revenue Service. In general, the lottery agencies subtract taxes prior to awarding large prizes. For example, the New York lottery withholds federal, state, and local income taxes on prizes greater than $5,000. The lottery withholds 25% for federal taxes and 7.7% for state taxes from prizes greater than $5,000 won by U.S. residents. An additional 4.45% is withheld if the winner is a New York City resident. Non-U.S. residents face even higher tax withholding rates.

In addition, the New York lottery is required by law to subtract past-due child support payments and collect repayment of public assistance from prizes of $600 or more.

In June 2002 the South Carolina lottery launched a new online game called Carolina 5. The game was unique because the $100,000 jackpot featured prepaid taxes. This was the first online game to offer a tax-free jackpot.

Education

Lottery proponents often advocate lotteries for their economic benefits to education. Some lotteries dedicate a portion of their profits toward K–12 or higher education. Concerns have been raised, however, that these profits are not additional dollars for education but simply replace general fund dollars that would have been spent on education anyway.

In April 2004 mathematics professor Donald Miller of Saint Mary's College in Indiana argued in a USA Today article that educational spending per student gradually decreases once a state starts a lottery ("Schools Lose Out in Lotteries," April 15, 2004). The finding is based on examination of data from 1965 to 1990 for twelve states that enacted lotteries for education during this time. According to Miller, average pre-lottery spending increased each year by approximately $12 per student in these states. Post-lottery spending showed a huge increase in the immediate years following lottery initiation. On average the states increased their education spending by nearly $50 per student. However, the increase fell sharply in following years and eventually lagged behind states without lottery-generated education funds. Miller blames the problem on legislators using lottery funds "to replace rather than add to existing sources of education funding."

A 1999 study conducted by researchers at Duke University for NGISC calls earmarking lottery proceeds for education "an excellent device for engendering political support for a lottery." However, the study noted that it was doubtful that earmarked lottery revenues actually increase the funds available for specific programs. Some lottery funds earmarked for education just replace other funding sources. This is not true of programs initiated solely with lottery money, like Georgia's HOPE scholarship program.

the hope scholarship. Begun in 1993, the Georgia lottery funds three educational programs:

• The HOPE scholarship program
• A voluntary pre-kindergarten program
• Grants to train teachers in advanced technologies and capital outlay projects for educational facilities

HOPE stands for Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally. HOPE scholarships and grants are available to Georgia residents who enroll in certain programs at public and private institutions in the state. Students must have at least a B grade average to qualify for HOPE money in the first place and to maintain their eligibility in subsequent years. Most recipients are recent high school graduates who pursue college degrees.

At public colleges, the HOPE Scholarship pays for tuition and fees and provides a $300 book allowance per academic year. Room and board expenses are not covered. At private colleges, the HOPE Scholarship provides $3,000 per academic year to full-time students, plus students can qualify for the Georgia Tuition Equalization Grant (GTEG) of $900 per academic year. Part-time students attending private colleges are eligible for $1,500 per academic year, but do not qualify for the GTEG.

During its first ten years of operation the lottery provided approximately $2.5 billion to the HOPE scholarship program, $2.1 billion to the pre-kindergarten program, and $1.8 billion to the remaining programs.

As of August 2004 more than 800,000 students have received HOPE scholarships. HOPE is the country's largest state-financed merit-based aid program and is credited with significantly increasing the attendance of instate residents at Georgia colleges. Similar programs include Kentucky's Educational Excellence Scholarship and New Mexico's Lottery Success Scholarship.

Social Effects

Think of lottery winnings just like other income—except you don't have to work for it.

—Charles T. Clotfelter et al., State Lotteries at the Turn of the Century: Report to the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, April 23, 1999

Lotteries are undeniably a cultural and social phenomenon. They are operated on every continent around the world with the exception of Antarctica. In the United States, lotteries enjoy unprecedented popularity in the gambling realm. They are legal in forty states and generally considered a benign form of entertainment with two enormous selling points. First, they seem to offer a shortcut to the "American Dream" of wealth and prosperity. Second, they are a voluntary activity that raises money for the public good in lieu of increased taxes. Lottery opponents generally base their objections on religious or moral reasons. Some people consider all forms of gambling to be wrong, and state-sponsored lotteries may be particularly abhorrent to them.

The NGISC final report of 1999 complained about the appropriateness of state governments pushing luck, instant gratification, and entertainment as alternatives to hard work, prudent investment, and savings. Such a message might be particularly troubling if it is directed to lower-income people.

Because online lottery tickets are so widely circulated, lottery officials in several states have decided to use them as a means to spread critical information. The Amber Alert message system is used around the country to notify the public via television, radio, and electronic billboards about abducted children. Lotteries in several states have all agreed to use the message system to alert ticket buyers about abducted children.

underage play. The legal minimum age to play the lottery varies by state from eighteen to twenty-one. However, numerous studies have shown that children and adolescents are buying lottery tickets. A 1999 Gallup poll on gambling found that 15% of adolescents age thirteen to seventeen had purchased a lottery ticket in the previous year.

Similar findings are reiterated in other surveys. Dr. Martin Lazoritz and his colleagues interviewed 1,051 Florida teens over the phone about their gambling habits. (Parental permission for the interviews was obtained first.) The Florida researchers reported at the October 2002 meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry that 18.5% of Florida adolescents (age thirteen to seventeen) surveyed had purchased a lottery ticket at some time in their lives. In addition, 12.5% of the respondents had purchased a lottery ticket during the previous year. (The results also appear in the study Teen Gambling: Evidence from the University of Florida's Statewide Epidemiological Study.)

The NGISC reported in 1999 that 47% of seventh-graders in Massachusetts had played the lottery. The commission developed seven advertising recommendations for lottery officials to discourage underage play:

• The legal minimum age should be posted at lottery points of sale.
• Lottery advertising should not be directed primarily toward minors.
• Lottery advertising should not contain symbols or language primarily intended to appeal to those under the legal minimum age.
• Animated characters used in lottery advertising should not have any association with television programs and movies geared toward children.
• Celebrities who would primarily appeal to minors should not be used in lottery advertising.
• Lottery advertisements should not picture people that are or appear to be minors.

poverty and race/ethnicity. One of the most common criticisms leveled against state lotteries is that they unfairly burden the poor—they are mostly funded by low-income people who buy tickets, but benefit higher-income people for the most part. In economics terminology, a tax that places a higher burden on lower-income groups than higher-income groups (in terms of percentage of their income) is called a "regressive" tax. Although the lottery is not really a tax, many people consider it to be a form of voluntary taxation because the proceeds fund government programs. In 1999 Dr. Philip Cook testified to NGISC that "the tax that is built into the lottery is the most regressive tax we know."

Cook and his colleague Dr. Charles Clotfelter examined this issue at length in their book Selling Hope: State Lotteries in America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989). The researchers found that lottery players with annual incomes of less than $10,000 spend more on lottery tickets ($597 per year) than any other income group. They also found that high school dropouts spend four times as much as college graduates, and that African-Americans spend five times as much as Caucasians. The NGISC final report expressed serious concern about the heavy reliance of lotteries upon less-educated, lower-income people. It also mentions that an unusually large number of lottery outlets are concentrated in poor neighborhoods.

In response to these claims, the president of the NASPL made the following points at a presentation in July 1999 to the National Conference of State Legislatures:

• The NGISC report does not provide any evidence that lotteries target their marketing to poor people.
• Marketing to poor people would be unwise on the part of lotteries from a business and political standpoint.
• People often buy lottery tickets outside of the neighborhoods in which they live.
• Many areas associated with low-income residents (for example, inner cities) are visited or passed through by higher-income shoppers and workers.
• High-income residential neighborhoods have relatively few stores and gas stations, making them less likely to have lottery outlets.

In 2001 researchers at the Vinson Institute of Government Studies at the University of Georgia reviewed a number of nationwide and state studies on the relationship between income and lottery participation and found that "the regressivity finding remains largely consistent throughout the literature" (Joseph McCrary and Thomas J. Pavlak, Who Plays the Georgia Lottery?, 2002). Researchers cite a common belief among lower-income people that playing the lottery is their only chance to escape poverty.

In October 2002 the Chicago Reporter published a report on its analysis of lottery sales in Illinois since 1997. The story "Illinois Lottery: The Poor Play More" compared lottery sales figures around the state with income and demographic data from the 2000 census. The ten zip codes with the highest lottery sales for the past six fiscal years were all in the city of Chicago. The residents of all ten zip codes had average incomes of less than $20,000 per year, compared to the city average of $24,000 per year. Eight of the zip code areas had unemployment rates in excess of the city average of 10%. Residents of half of the zip code areas were populated by at least 70% African-Americans. The newspaper found that average lottery sales per capita in the city's mostly African-American zip codes were 29% to 33% higher than in mostly white or Latino zip code areas.

The zip code with the highest lottery sales in the state, 60609, coincides with predominantly African-American and Latino low-income communities on the city's south side. Residents of that zip code spent nearly $23 million on lottery tickets during fiscal year 2002. The newspaper also found that residents in poorer communities spent a larger portion of their incomes on lottery tickets than did people in more affluent neighborhoods. Lottery spending during fiscal year 2002 was $224 per person (or $1.57 for every $100 of income) in zip codes that were at least 70% African-American and $173 per person (or $0.46 for every $100 of income) in zip codes that were at least 70% Caucasian.

In Georgia the Vinson Institute reported that African-Americans and less-educated people are more likely to be active lottery players than Caucasians and more-educated people. Proceeds from the Georgia lottery fund only education programs. If these programs provide more benefits to the poor than to the wealthy, it could be argued that this compensates for the regressive nature of the state lottery.

Studies performed by Ross Rubenstein and Benjamin Scafidi ("Who Pays and Who Benefits?" National Tax Journal, June 1, 2002) and by Christopher Cornwell and David Mustard (The Distributional Impacts of Lottery Funded Merit-Based Aid, Athens, GA: University of Georgia, August 2001) have criticized Georgia's lottery for providing more lottery benefits to white households than to minority households. Cornwell and Mustard claim that counties with the highest incomes and white populations receive significantly more HOPE college scholarships.

Researchers at the Vinson Institute argue that a county-by-county comparison of HOPE scholarship recipients is not appropriate because there are other factors that affect these statistics—for example, whether a particular county contains a college or university. However, they did conclude that minorities in Georgia are "slightly less likely" than whites to get a HOPE scholarship while in college.

In late 2003 the latest findings of the Vinson Institute regarding the lottery were published in "The Georgia Lottery: Assessing Its Administrative, Economic, and Political Effects" (Review of Policy Research, Winter 2003). The researchers examined census data, polls, and other statistics from lottery inception through 1999. They found that lottery play was inversely related to education level. In other words, people with fewer years of education played the lottery more often than those with more years of education. The study also noted that lottery spending per person was highest in counties with larger percentages of African-American populations.

Regarding the HOPE scholarship program, the researchers found that white students received a disproportionately high amount of the funds compared to African-American students. In 1999 white students comprised 66% of the freshman class in Georgia, but accounted for 74% of all HOPE scholars. By contrast, African-Americans comprised 26% of all freshmen, but accounted for only 21% of HOPE scholars. The authors note that this disproportionate relationship was true for every year examined, back to 1994. However, they noted that the gap narrowed substantially over that time.

Analysis of Georgia's lottery-funded prekindergarten program provided completely different results. The Vinson Institute found that the rate of enrollment in the prekindergarten program is higher in lower-income areas of the state than in affluent areas. The researchers conclude that this particular lottery program is more beneficial to poorer people, African-Americans, and those who regularly play the lottery than to other groups in the state.

In another study published in the January 2004 issue of Journal of Hispanic Higher Education a researcher from Saint Leo University in Florida found that minority and low-income students did not have proportionate access to higher education in lottery states ("State Lotteries: Their Effect on Equal Access to Higher Education").

compulsive gambling and "cognitive distortion." All state lotteries have programs in place that encourage responsible play. Messages are included in promotional materials, advertisements, public service announcements, and even on lottery tickets. Some states publicize toll-free numbers or Web sites that offer help to problem gamblers.

Still, some people and organizations believe any type of gambling can be harmful, even lottery play. The Naples, Florida, office of the Salvation Army, an evangelical Christian charity, refused a $100,000 donation from Florida Lotto winner David L. Rush in December 2002. A spokesperson for the head of the office, Major Cleo Damon, explained that "there are times when Major Damon is counseling families who are about to become homeless because of gambling." Major Damon expressed concern that taking lottery winnings would constitute "talking out of both sides of his mouth." Two other charities, Habitat for Humanity and the Rotary Club of Marco Island, accepted large donations from Rush's lottery winnings in the same time period.

The vast majority of states operate lotteries, meaning they are easily accessible to large numbers of people. Surveys, including one conducted by the Gallup Organization in December 2003, have shown that lottery play is the most popular and widely practiced form of gambling in the United States. But does the combination of easy and widespread access and general public acceptance mean that lottery players are more likely to develop serious gambling problems?

The Gambling Impact and Behavior Study: Report to the National Gambling Impact Study Commission was conducted by NORC of the University of Chicago in 1999. The NORC study concluded that there is a significant association between lottery availability and the prevalence of at-risk gambling within a state. At-risk gamblers are defined as those who gamble regularly and may be prone to a gambling problem. However, the study found that multivisit lottery patrons had the lowest prevalence of pathological and problem gambling among the gambling types examined.

These researchers also warned that the patron database used in this analysis was small, meaning that the findings may not apply universally. They note that lottery players who do have a problem may be less able to recognize it because lottery players tend to undercount their losses. Lottery players generally lose small amounts at a time, even though these small amounts may eventually total a very large amount. In other words, a casino gambler who loses thousands of dollars in a day may be more likely to admit to having a gambling problem than a lottery player who loses the same amount over a longer period of time.

In July 2001 The Wager, a report of the Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling, described a study published by Canadian researchers on the cognitive misconceptions of problem lottery gamblers. Sixty-three college students at McGill University in Montreal were screened to determine their participation in gambling activities. Those with some gambling experience were given the South Oaks Gambling Screen, or SOGS test. This is a common series of questions used to determine the probability that a person has a gambling problem. Those with a SOGS score of 0–2 are considered not to have a gambling problem. A SOGS score of 3–4 indicates a probable problem gambler, and a SOGS score of 5 or more indicates a probable pathological gambler.

All of the students were shown sixteen lotto tickets, each marked with a different sequence of six numbers out of forty-nine numbers total. All sequences followed one of these configurations:

• Random (for example: 1, 13, 19, 34, 40, 47)
• Pattern (for example: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30)
• Long sequence (for example: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
• Nonequilibrated or unbalanced (a series not covering the whole range of possible numbers, usually limited to either high or low numbers—for example: 3, 5, 9, 12, 15, 17)

The students were asked to choose the twelve tickets they would most like to play in the lottery and to rank these tickets from best to worst. Results indicated that random sequences were by far the most popular. More than half of the tickets selected by the students as their first, second, third, or fourth favorite choices contained random sequences. When choosing a favorite lottery ticket, the second most popular choice was the pattern sequence, followed by the nonequilibrated sequence and the long sequence.

The students were also asked to explain the reasoning behind their selections. Randomness was the reason given 78% of the time. The presence of significant numbers (for example, a birthdate) was the second most popular reason, named 69.5% of the time.

The researchers point out that all of the students' choices were irrational because every ticket has an equal chance of winning. However, those students who regularly play the lottery or participate in other gambling activities were more likely to display bias when choosing their favorite tickets. In other words, they had stronger opinions about what was "winnable" than did infrequent players and those who did not gamble. The probable pathological gamblers were found to have more illusions about control than all other participants. The authors concluded that there was "some level of cognitive distortion" demonstrated by all of the gamblers in the study.

THE FUTURE OF U.S. LOTTERIES

New State Lotteries?

As of August 2004, only ten states had no lotteries: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Hawaii, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming. Hawaii and Utah permit no types of gambling at all. Alaskan politicians have shown no interest in a lottery. Wyoming politicians have stated publicly that they do not want to expand gambling options in their state. Lotteries are also long shots in Nevada and Mississippi because of the tremendous growth of casino gambling in these states.

However, polls conducted during the early twenty-first century in Alabama, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Oklahoma show strong support for lotteries that would benefit education in those states:

• A June 2002 poll performed by the Mobile Register and the University of South Alabama found 52% approval for a statewide lottery. Approval rose to 75% for a lottery dedicated only to educational programs.
• A poll conducted by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in August 2002 showed a 51.9% approval rating for a lottery conducted to fund government programs. Support was slightly higher (58% approval) for a lottery with funding dedicated only to educational programs.
• Likewise, a poll conducted during March 2002 by The Oklahoman newspaper and the University of Oklahoma found 68% approval for a lottery in general and 76% approval for a lottery to benefit education.
• The North Carolina House of Representatives voted in September 2002 to prevent a statewide lottery referendum from appearing on the ballot in November 2002, despite a survey by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research showing that 58% of respondents supported a lottery in the state.

As of August 2004 North Carolina shows potential for adding a state lottery in the near future. North Carolina Governor Mike Easley is a strong proponent of a state lottery to fund education programs. However, the state's Republican party and other opponents have fought measures to introduce a lottery. With the advent of lottery play in Tennessee during early 2004, North Carolina is completely surrounded by lottery states.

Oklahoma voters overwhelming approved a lottery to fund education in November 2004. The measure was supported by Governor Brad Henry who made the lottery a key component of his successful campaign for the governorship. Following the election, Governor Henry wrote on his Web site (www.governor.state.ok.us) that he was reviewing applications for positions on the state's new Lottery Commission, and concluded that "the sooner the lottery is up and running, the sooner our children—and our state—will reap the benefits."

Attempts at a National Indian Lottery

The Coeur d'Alene Indians of Idaho have been trying to start a national lottery since 1995. The National Indian Lottery would allow residents of all lottery states to dial a toll-free number at the reservation and register numbers to be played in each drawing. Players would pay using a credit card. The plan was approved by the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC), and the Coeur d'Alenes had already contracted with AT&T to set up the phone lines when state attorneys general from ten lottery states challenged the plan. They warned AT&T that the company's participation in the lottery program would be illegal. The company pulled out of the deal and was sued by the Coeur d'Alene Indians. AT&T countersued and was backed up by U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge, who ruled that the national lottery would violate federal law.

In March 2002 the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the ruling. The court ruled that the states had to take their grievances about the lottery to the NIGC instead of pressuring AT&T to not participate. As of August 2004, the Coeur d'Alene Tribal Council has not decided if it will pursue the phone lottery further. The tribe tried to run the lottery over the Internet during the late 1990s but gave up after the attorneys general of several lottery states filed suit.

coping with "jackpot fatigue." A huge problem facing the lottery industry is called "jackpot fatigue." Lottery consumers demand higher and higher jackpot prizes to get excited about lotto games. However, individual states cannot increase jackpot sizes without either greatly increasing sales or decreasing the portion going to public funds. The first option is very difficult to achieve and the second is politically dangerous. Jackpot fatigue has driven increasing membership in multistate lotteries, such as Mega Millions and Powerball.

pressure for increased revenue. Even as they cope with jackpot fatigue, many lotteries also face pressure to increase the amount of profit going to government programs. Several states are considering decreasing their lottery payout in order to raise much needed funds. Opponents argue that cutting prize payouts will reduce sales, making it nearly impossible to increase state revenues.