First of all, lotteries are exempt from all Federal Communication Commission advertising regulations. Lotteries spend millions annually to produce deceptive ads that entice people to gamble and routinely target the uneducated, low-income and senior citizens. Lotteries don t hurt businesses . Because of the predatory nature of lotteries, a dollar spent on a lottery ticket is a dollar not spent on legitimate items like food and medicine. Convenience stores that sell lottery tickets often lose money because patrons aren t spending dollars on actual items.
Experts call lotteries cannibalism economics.
Georgia s lottery is generating billions of dollars for education. However, even with the high-ticket revenues the lottery has been unable to meet its full obligation to education for the past two years. Under Georgia law, the lottery is required to pay 35 percent of revenues to the state for education. The Georgia Lottery has been forced to dip into reserve funds and unclaimed prize accounts to fund education. Lotteries don t prey on the poor.