Official Lottery allows you to play your favorite state lottery games right on your phone.
The idea of winning a lotto jackpot has become a central part of American culture. It’s a relic of our post-war prosperity, when Americans were optimistic about their ability to make it big through hard work and thrifty spending. But the odds of hitting the jackpot are incredibly remote. In fact, most people will never win one.
Lottery officials have worked to dispel these cynical attitudes by stressing how much good the money raised by the games does for the community, especially education. They tell voters that the revenue from ticket sales accounts for about five per cent of a state’s school funding. But these campaigns are fundamentally misleading. They are based on the assumption that people will take lottery playing lightly, that it is just a game. And they ignore the fact that the vast majority of lottery players are dedicated gamblers who spend a significant share of their income on tickets.
States’ financial need in the mid-20th century gave rise to the modern lottery, but a combination of moral, religious, and economic factors helped turn public opinion against gambling in general and lotteries in particular. Denmark Vesey, an enslaved man in Charleston, won a local lottery in 1800, and used the proceeds to buy his freedom. The same moral and religious sensibilities that eventually led to prohibition also turned the tide against the state lottery.