Are Critics Right?

Lottery critics aren’t very difficult to find, as I discovered only a couple of days ago when I was buying my own tickets for the EuroMillions and Lotto games. I was standing in line and heard a woman say to her husband, 'I can’t believe you’re doing this again. You never win more than the minimum prize, so what’s the point?'

“The point is that I enjoy it,” the man responded. “It’s just a couple of pounds a week and it makes me happy.”

“So throwing your money down the drain makes you happy?”

“Well you do the same when you buy your fancy bubble bath,” he said.

At that point the woman went quiet, and after smiling at the man’s insightful quip for a few moments, I began thinking about his wife’s criticisms. Her comment, that the lottery is essentially a waste of money, is one that many non-players would agree with. But in the big scheme of things, is it really?

As the man in the queue behind me quite right stated, bubble bath is as much a waste of money as a lottery ticket if we judge the purchase solely on what we have at the end of the day, because we effectively just sit in it and then pour it down the drain. Spending money on other transient experiences, such as seeing a movie or having a glass of wine, is much the same. In each case, our expenditure leaves us with nothing.

So what are we paying for? We’re paying for the experience that such purchases give us. Taking a bubble bath helps people to relax. Watching a movie or having a glass of win makes people feel good for a short while. And the same applies to lottery tickets – we buy them because the idea of being in with a chance of winning a fortune makes us feel optimistic and hopeful about the future, even though we know the odds are stacked against us.

What makes the purchase of lottery tickets different, however, is that we really can get more out of it than we pay into it. It is not absolutely certain that our ticket will be worthless after the draw. On the contrary, it could be worth millions.

Another difference with lottery tickets is that the very act of purchasing them does some good, thanks to the fact that almost all lotteries use a high proportion of monies raised to support projects that benefit society at large. The UK National Lottery, for example, puts 28% of money generated through ticket sales into a fund for Good Causes, and has raised more than £20 billion since the lottery started in November 1994.

So, when all is considered, are the critics right? Is the lottery a waste of money? The short answer in my opinion is no, because not only do tickets offer just as much entertainment value as a bottle of bubble bath or a glass of wine, they also help to support projects that might not otherwise get supported. And, of course, they also give us a chance of winning a fortune – not something that can be said of the foamy stuff.
 

Article Last Updated: 22/06/2010 12:40:53

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