Lottery is a game in which small probabilities of winning are offered to the public for a chance at a prize. It is distinguished from gambling, which requires a payment of some consideration in exchange for the opportunity to win a prize. People are prone to treat small probabilities as large ones, Van Boven explains: “If something has only a 1% probability of occurring, people will tend to weight it as if it were 5%.”
State lotteries began in 1964 with New Hampshire, but they quickly spread to all 50 states. Despite the fact that lotteries have a relatively low profit margin, they continue to enjoy broad public approval. This approval is largely due to the belief that lottery revenues are used for a specific public good such as education. However, it also has little to do with the state’s actual financial health: “Lottery popularity is independent of the state’s fiscal condition,” Clotfelter and Cook note.
People are often lured into playing the lottery by promises that it is a get-rich-quick scheme. These promises focus the lottery player on the world’s illusory riches and divert his or her attention away from the pursuit of God’s eternal riches (see Ecclesiastes 3:1-4). The Lord wants us to earn our wealth through hard work: “He who is lazy shall not eat” (Proverbs 10:4). The truth is that playing the lottery is statistically futile and only focuses one’s efforts on the temporary riches of this life.