Wanna Bet?

Gambling is big business. In the United States, legal and illegal gambling add up to about $240 billion each year-- $1,000 for each person!

Illegal gambling is widespread, such as bets on football games. Lottery tickets are sold in corner stores, reducting the stigma against gambling.

Why do people gamble? Most people say they play for fun. But it wouldn't be fun if they didn't also hope to strike it rich.

But almost no one does. The chances of winning a lottery jackpot are one out of several million. The more you play, the more you will probably lose. Lotteries are designed to make money for the administrators, not the players. The players, on average, get back only half of their money.

Instant wealth is the hope of gamblers. It often leads to the poor house.

Advertisements for lotteries and racetracks often suggest that wealth comes easily. The hope of quick riches has a strong appeal, especially to the poor. Poor people gamble more often than the rich do, and therefore lose a larger percentage of their money.

"The message of lottery advertising is a slightly subversive one, that success is just waiting for you to pick the right number," write Charles Clotfelter and Philip Cook, Duke University economists. They suggest that lottery advertising may reduce people's willingness "to work, save, and self-invest in education and training."

- By Michael Morrison

Taken from Youth 90 magazine