The Positive and Negative Effects of Lottery Winning

The lottery is considered one of the most sought after things in our modern day society. With its affordable prices for tickets and eye catching advertisements, it manages to promise favorable fortune for the lucky individual who manages to snatch the prize. All over the media, news of the winners from around the country excites our interest to play, seeing the vast amounts of money and healthy life style the lottery seemingly offers. We would here about lottery winners achieving all of their life goals and even starting businesses. However, the truth of the lottery has a more negative effect. Despite the shiny road it seems to pave for us, the lottery only leads that individual down a path of misery and depression. It brings out the worst aspects of a person and ruins the lives of millions, both directly and indirectly. The State Lottery is harmful to both the economy and a person’s financial and social life to a great extent.

There have been several incidents of past winners of the lottery loosing every penny they’ve earned. Before winning a $2.76 million lottery jackpot in 2005, Lara and Roger Griffiths, of England, were in an argument-free relationship. After they won, they bought their big dream house even took several trips around the country. In 2010, however, an accidental fire tore through their house, which was underinsured, burning away their money the cost as well as their new lifestyle. Shortly after, Roger left Lara for someone else (Abadi). Michael Carroll was 19 when he won Britain’s £9.7 million— $15 million — jackpot in 2002. But due to his natural tendencies to spend his cash on crack, parties, prostitutes, and cars, he put himself back at square one in a mere five years. He is currently hoping to get his old job back. (Abadi). After winning an $18 million lottery jackpot in 1993, Janite Lee lost it all within a decade when Lee, a wigmaker from South Korea, burned all of it on charity. She was a major donor for the Democratic Party, but her giving hand, along with some gambling and credit-card debt was what did her in, having her file for bankruptcy in 2001 (Abadi)

Psychological Explanation of Playing the Lottery

Given the experiences formed by players of the lottery, there is a level psychology when it comes to playing. According to Kevin Loria, a business insider of ScienceAlert, studies show that people are compelled to buy tickets because “we have a hard time processing just how unlikely a win is” and we give ourselves reasons to think we could win. Some research also suggest that the more frequent players are those from low income areas who hope to escape their financial circumstances. The research that was cited as being the most “interesting” indicates that winning the lottery doesn’t make people happier long-term. Contrary to what most people believe, winning the lottery doesn’t make people more likely to go on spending sprees that would leave them broken and unhappy either, despite there being several people who have. There are winners who report ending up about as happy as they were before winning, as if winning only gave them very few levels of happiness.

Further psychological testing has proven the low benefits from winning the lottery. A 1978 study on this, as further explained by ScienceAlert, compared 22 lottery winners to 22 control-group members, who didn’t win any money, and to 29 people who were paralyzed in accidents. After the test was completed, the lottery winners reported to be happier than the paraplegics and quadriplegics, with a 4 out of 5 and a 2.96 out of 5 respectively. The control group averaged 3.82 out of 5. However, the lottery winners reported getting the least amount of enjoyment from what researchers called ‘mundane pleasures’. These were the enjoyable aspects of everyday life such as eating breakfast and so on. What was surprising was that lottery winners didn’t report being happier than non-winners, and that accident victims reported being above the scale’s mid-point. Overall, winning the lottery didn’t increase happiness as much as people theorized it would, and a catastrophic accident didn’t make people as unhappy as people might have expected.

Hitting the jackpot on a lottery does not guarantee solutions to people’s problems. There are many stories of couples and individuals whose lives have crashed and burned after winning. Not having enough money can make someone become anxious to spend their winnings on any and everything they couldn’t afford before. Stephanie Castillo, a contributor on YourTango, says that it is a luxury. However, money can easily inflict stress and distrust on a relationship. In her example, one may buy something under the other person’s nose, leading to a disagreement over wasting money. The two will then end up questioning the spending habits of each other in fear of bankruptcy, leading to a disconnect between each other, having money be what actually holds the relationship together and not they themselves.

Stephanie Castillo also speaks on relationships becoming less sincere. Everyone seeks out friends with the most amount of digits in their bank account. So when both that person and the spouse become millionaires, they end up getting phone calls from friends who they have been disconnected from or friends who were never really close. Suddenly, the line between genuine and not genuine becomes blurred. Everybody who has some relation to a lottery winner will appear in attempts to squeeze out every dime they have. As Castillo stated it, “Pretty soon people will be asking for hand-outs, and you and your partner may begin to argue about whom you should or shouldn’t help with your money.”

The lottery is essentially a gateway to an entirely new world that the winner will have to pass through, leading to them encountering a similar process after they win. A staff writer on FashionBends describes this life by commenting on the massive loads of paperwork given to them as well as the fact that their names and home towns are legally considered public information. This means that journalists all over the state will sniff them out (Staff Writer). According to the author, lucky lotto players “become one of the most heavily targeted marks in the entire world,” Andrew Stotmann, who is a securities attorney who has represented more than a few lottery winners. Even though winners initially state that they would call a loved one if they won, most actual winners stay hidden as much as possible until they have enough lawyers or accountants on their side.

Economic Side of the Lottery

In terms of the economy, the lottery’s position in the matter is questioned considerably. There are constant talks on if consumers buying lottery tickets will be more beneficial than consumers buying regular goods. Victor Matheson, an economics professor at College of the Holy Cross, made a statement on CNN News that research is pointing in the direction of buying lottery tickets being less helpful than buying goods. Matheson argued that spending money with businesses helps boost much more economic activity than gambling on the lottery. While 25% of Powerball revenue goes to the 43 states that participate in it, about 60% of the money that is spent on tickets is paid out in the form of winnings. The ones who sell the tickets get an estimate of 5% to 6% of ticket sales as commission. In other words, they get only $10 to $12 for every 100 Powerball chances they sell. The remaining goes toward administrative costs and advertising spending (Matheson).

Lottery tickets are also a road block for stores trying to receive regular customers. A big jackpot from a lottery offering a billion dollar cash prize can be a mixed blessing for retailers selling tickets. This was said by Jeff Lenard, a spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores. While the retailers would gladly accept the extra traffic the lottery brings in, it can also chase away their regular customers who might have spent their money on products with better profit margins if not for the lottery coming in. This is because the large prize offered by the lottery makes people drop what they are doing to buy a ticket since it allures them with promises of becoming a millionaire. ‘Convenience stores sell convenience,’ he said. ‘You don’t want to chase away someone from buying a cup of coffee.’

Many of the people who question the logistics of the lottery are also the same ones who think to see what would happen if it was abolished. Bruce Wright, an economic official who interviewed the Texas Lottery director Gary Grief, mentioned of the widespread recent success of the lottery. However, the misconception is that the lottery will solve everything. “The lottery was never meant to completely fund education, despite the perception problem we continue to deal with — it was never meant to be a panacea. It was intended to add significant new revenue to state coffers,” (Gary Grief). He also mentions how the Texas Lottery is suspected and accused of monopolizing the lottery through the gambling it encourages people to do.

Conclusion

Through the dangerous and economically poor living conditions winning participants play as well as the doubtful benefits it provides to the states, the lottery does more harm than good. Despite the vast fortunes it offers the players and the percentage of money it gives back, there is too much risk involved, with people’s lives more than likely to get worse than better. The government is even still debating whether it should be abolished. Like any other form of gambling, the lottery takes too much away with no guarantee of something good in return.