This week the Arkansas Lottery rolled out four new scratch-off tickets — including one ticket that sells for $10.
Scratch-off tickets are controversial, because they are tied to problem gambling and gambling addiction.
A 2015 study in Canada described them as “paper slot machines.”
A 2018 study published in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions found a link between how often a person played scratch-off tickets and the severity of a person’s gambling problem.
Expensive scratch-off tickets are particularly controversial, because they prey on the poor and desperate by offering long odds on big jackpots.
Despite all of this, the Arkansas Lottery still relies very heavily on scratch-off tickets.
The vast majority of the money the Arkansas Lottery makes from scratch-off tickets pays for prizes for lottery players. Very little goes to Arkansas’ students.
As long as the Arkansas Lottery continues to operate this way, it will keep preying on the poor and desperate, and the Lottery’s scholarship funding will remain low.
