Against The Lottery

Against the Lottery – Should it be banned? Back in the 1930s and the 1940s when most of the population was poor, people had no source of income and wondered how to take care of themselves and their families, the lottery became a popular trend. Officially, the first modern government run US lottery was established in Puerto Rico in 1934 (encyclopedia). The odds of winning are 1 in 176,000,000 (Humphries). If you are lucky enough then you can strike big and win prizes up to $10,000,000. It can help you achieve your dreams and make your life better. As they say there is always a positive and a negative side of everything. There are negative impacts as well for the lottery. The most crucial part is that it ruins the economy. There are also huge
amounts of tax you should pay to claim your big prize. The amount of tax depends on how you win. Lotteries are helpful, but also have a negative impact. The negative impacts are more compared to the positive impacts, so considering all the facts, the lottery should be banned. A lottery is a game where people pay money hoping to win cash prizes, usually big cash prizes.
Most of the money is used to award the lucky winners and the money that is left over is profit. Lotteries are immensely popular and legitimate in more than a hundred countries. There are many types of lottery games available to play. The most popular one is US Mega Millions. In the United States, all lotteries are managed by state government. (Dave). The chances of each player winning are at relatively 1 in 143,000,000 (Humphries). Americans from almost every state including the Capital Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, have a chance to win it big. There are many risks from the lottery and one of those ricks is that they affect the economy. A country is mostly considered powerful by its economy structure. Americans have spent a total of $65.7 billion on lottery tickets which is more than the amount of sports tickets, concert tickets, video games, books, and magazines combined
(Humphries).
Everyone imagines themselves winning the lottery, which leads to waste of income. With chances high opposed to winning a jackpot, lottery players suffer a loss of half a dollar on every lottery ticket they purchase. A person begins with playing their first game to see if they are lucky enough to strike it big. When he/she fails to win the first time then he/she tries again and keep on failing because the chances of winning are very low. This leads to a lot of waste of money and others follow them to see if their luck is with them and if they can win (Karan).
40% of Americans say they would stop working if they won a huge lottery and would settle somewhere and buying a fancy mansion, a car, and luxury things (Harter). However, one of the most prevailing problems with winning huge lotteries is many winners do not use money management skills. They are broke within 2-3 years because of the excitement. They start thinking of what to do first and what to spend it on and that does not make them think that they need to invest their money in order to save better and for the future.
Winning lotteries often lead to loss of jobs.
When someone wins a lottery, they think that everything is over and that they are rich now, but it is not like this. Jobs are a regular source of income, but when one wins a lottery they get lazy and quit their job. Unlike the educated ones, the uneducated ones quit their job and they have no source of income. Some people do not even come to work, even if they have their jobs, so their boss need to replace them with someone suitable for that job. Lotteries increase the rate of unemployment which leads to people not having a regular source of income making it hard for them to take care of themselves and their families.
There are different types of lotteries from the video lottery, the lotto, the Powerball, raffles, scratch-off, and the dailies. For all those lotteries, there are different prices of tickets varied from the lottery you are playing. The most expensive lottery ticket bought was $50 bought in Texas. Usually lottery tickets range from $0.50 to $10, but the $50 ticket that was bought in Texas was a surprise. The lowest ticket prices are $0.50. The average ticket price is $1, and the maximum ranges from $2.50 to
$10.
Lotteries have a lot of negative impacts on the economy and the environment around us. On the other hand, they also have some positive impacts. They can completely change a person’s life from a bankrupt to a millionaire or to a status where they can have a job, earn money, and take care of their family. Lotteries can be used to fulfil people’s needs such as purchasing clothes to wear, purchasing food, and things that are imporant in everyday life. Lotteries can make people’s dreams come true like going on a family vacation, buying a house, sending a child/grandchild to a college or university, or even going on a world tour (Riggio). The best way they are useful is that the money can be used to help fund a institution, or even donate to charity to help people and children have a good life.
To conclude it all and considering the negative impacts they have such as running the economy, wasting people’s income, and not motivating people to go and work, lotteries still have positive impacts like changing your life in a good way. Fulfilling your dreams, funding an institute, and donating to charity. Lotteries have very low chances to achieve the positive factors, but have a lot of chances to achieve the negative factors, and for those reasons lotteries should be banned.