On Tuesday the Arkansas Lottery rolled out five new scratch-off tickets that sell for anywhere from $2 to $10 each.
Unlike some state lotteries, the Arkansas Lottery relies very heavily on scratch-off tickets for revenue.
As we have written before, 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 — like the Lottery’s new $10 ticket — are particularly controversial, because they prey on the poor and desperate by offering long odds on big jackpots.
People who spend $10 on a single scratch-off ticket lose their money two-thirds of the time.
The Arkansas Lottery has a history of rolling out new lottery games more regularly than any other state lottery we know.
From the start, the state-run lottery has used a steady stream of new games and expensive marketing campaigns to bolster sales and entice people to buy lottery tickets.
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.
