Poor people spend 9% of income on lottery tickets

The Consumerist recently had an interesting post about a study that shows that poor households, with annual take-home incomes under $13,000, on average, spend $645 a year on lottery tickets, which comes to about 9% of their yearly income.

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I hate the lottery. It is not an ethical way to get revenue IMO.

It is a tax on the poor. I used to sell tickets when working retail. The wealthy knew better...they didn't buy, or just bought once in awhile for fun. The vast majority of the sales were to people on food stamps, or people we knew were poor.

I've never understood the draw....especially after I had the opportunity to help scratch 10,000 tickets of an old game (back then they had to find out how many winners the stores still had...they weren't computer scanned like today), and realized out of all those tix....we only won $530....

Interesting. I've never bought a lottery ticket. In fact my gambling is reserved for things in which I have some control. I used to bowl for $.

My take is that poor people see no way out of their predicament unless they get lucky. A lottery gives them hope, that they might get lucky. There is that chance...... Forgotten is the cost of trying your chance. It would be more beneficial if poor people were taught how to take that money they spend on lottery tickets to make more money and get them to appreciate that some gain on 600 is better than a loss of 600/yr. But, clearly a small gain is not as sexy as the promise of the millions in their dreams.

Very sad really. I did not know who the major buyers really were. Not a good thing then. A no vote for me.

I think lotteries are silly and futile and the gov't should not be running them for anybody, rich or poor.

Maybe a warning from the Sec. of the Treasury "Buying lottery tickets may be hazardous to your long term financial health", and then tax the heck out of it. It seems to be the model that works. Sort of.

My pet peeve with the scratch lotteries is that they keep selling tickets even if the grand top prizes have already been won. No private business or individual is allowed to do that but the State of Colorado is.

You may buy a scratch ticket, hoping to win the $50,000 top prize, and the display says you have a chance, but it could have already been claimed weeks before -- and still they continue to sell tickets. They don't stop when the prizes have already been won. It's a state-approved scam.

WayneHarrison wrote: My pet peeve with the scratch lotteries is that they keep selling tickets even if the grand top prizes have already been won. No private business or individual is allowed to do that but the State of Colorado is.

You may buy a scratch ticket, hoping to win the $50,000 top prize, and the display says you have a chance, but it could have already been claimed weeks before -- and still they continue to sell tickets. They don't stop when the prizes have already been won. It's a state-approved scam.

People have no concept of the odds involved..Its like when republicans complain about government spending a million dollars on some program, but then they have no problem flushing a trillion down the toilet in Iraq..A million sounds like a trillion to them..Whats the difference? They get worked up over a pile of money the size of an automobile, but don't get upset over throwing away a pile of money the size of Pikes Peak...Theres no perspective here

Lotteries have a distinguished history in our nation. At the outset they were used to generate revenue in an era of low taxation when a capital improvement, such as a road or a bridge, was needed. Now, or course, we are routinely taxed on our property, our income and our purchases to provide for these things and the lottery revenue is used to ensure that areas that our elected officials are less inclined to fund, such as open spaces, find a source of revenue. Our largest state expense is education, and the largest portion of that expense is salaries, benefits and retirement for those that work in public education. We'll force the parents to pay additional monies for bus service, athletics or music and art so that the defined benefit package the government union workers receive is funded properly and a teacher or other school worker can retire at 75% of their final 3 years of salary.

Just another reason to give more of your money (taxes, welfare etc. ) to help these people. Come on. They need more and you have it. Give till it hurts.

Good article, just sad to read.
I seldom buy lottery tickets anymore, once upon a time I had a saying to myself to justify the purchase… if I don’t have at least one quick pick chance then I have no chance of winning. Now days, I only play penny slots if and when we go out and then I limit myself to $20.00. As you can see, I am not much of a gambler. I feel bad that so many of our lower income population spend so much of their hard earned money for a "chance" and then unfortunately the lottery curse usually brings them more misery if they win.

The Colorado Lottery is just selling dreams. At my company, when the Powerball gets over 100 million, people start collecting for the whole company. I see the stars in people's eyes and they talk about what they will do with the money. And then the next day, they cash in the $30 they actually won out of the $500 bet and they start all over again. Sad. The lottery is the most regressive tax out there. And if you look at the average numbers, you know some people are spending much more than 9%, maybe 20%.

I guess it is still better than spending it on booze, drugs, and smokes.