We’ve said from the beginning that lotteries are heavily played by the poor, and that there are a plethora of problems that come with having a lottery. It seems there’s now a story out of Michigan that illustrates those concerns very well.
A Michigan man won the lottery last summer. He was on food stamps at the time (which is a government aid program for people living below a certain income level). $2 million later, he’s still on food stamps.
The problem is that his lottery winnings were not treated as income–meaning that as far as the state was concerned, his income level hadn’t risen any. This story simply illustrates once again that
- Lotteries are played by people with low incomes–often people who can least afford to play.
- That states often have trouble managing the bureaucracy that comes with having a state-run lottery.
You can read more about the story here.
