The advent of government-organized gambling, in the form of state lotteries, is one of our age's most unnoticed social transformations. Before 1964, America had no such lotteries. Today, only five states don't run their own, and most others permit interstate games such as Powerball, which jack up prizes to extravagant levels. Lottery participation has skyrocketed. Overall revenues total some $80 billion; New York is the state leader, with $10 billion in ticket sales. The spread of lotteries has played a leading role in the normalization of gambling, once considered a vice akin to drug use or prostitution—and lottery sales are boosted by publicly funded advertising campaigns that prey on the weakness of gambling addicts while encouraging non-gamblers to get involved, too.
Many states use lotteries to help fill their coffers. A 2016 Rockefeller Institute of Government study found that, on average, state lotteries provide 2 percent of overall state revenues. In New York, it's 2.9 percent; in South Dakota, Oregon, and Georgia, the share exceeds 5 percent.
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