Even with a nearly $1 billion jackpot, Mega Millions isn’t worth playing
Tom Joyce
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No one hit the Mega Millions jackpot on Tuesday, so the prize is now nearly $1 billion.
The jackpot for Friday’s drawing will be $940 million, a sharp increase from the $785 million jackpot offered on Tuesday.
MEGA MILLIONS JACKPOT CLOSES IN ON $1 BILLION WITH NO TUESDAY WINNER
While $940 million is life-changing money and may tempt you to play the lottery, the massive prize is why people should avoid playing Mega Millions or any lottery game.
The lottery sells people the false promise that they can become uber-wealthy without doing any work. All someone has to do is buy the right ticket, and they can become the lucky winner. However, lottery games do not exist to make you rich. While some people win millions of dollars gambling in state lotteries, the government is always the lottery’s biggest winner.
State lotteries are not run by generous people who want to give you money. Instead, states run lotteries so they can take more of your money, making the lottery more of a voluntary yet regressive tax.
On average, states only pay out 63% of the revenue the lottery generates, according to CNN. The rest, about $34 billion, goes to paying salaries and advertising and funding government-run education, various social programs, and even putting money in states’ general funds.
The average adult in the United States spends $325 per year on lottery tickets. However, low-income people are more likely to play and spend a higher portion of their income on lottery tickets than the rest of the country.
In 2009, South Carolina households making under $40,000 per year were 53% of the state’s frequent lottery players despite being only 28% of the population. Living on under $40,000 is difficult. Given that most people who play the lottery lose, those people would be better off using that money to pay basic living expenses.
Additionally, households earning under $13,000 per year spent 9% of their income on lottery tickets, according to a 2012 report. Therefore, the lottery is taking money from people who need it to fund a government that presumably gives welfare benefits to many of these same people.
If you like paying taxes, then playing the lottery is fine. If you dislike paying taxes, however, consider spending that money elsewhere.
While no indication exists that state lotteries are folding any time soon, people can voice their opposition to lotteries by not participating in them and explaining the scam to their friends and families. Perhaps others will also exercise good judgment if they understand they are playing a rigged game.
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Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts.