This would surely fall under the subheading of News That Wouldn’t Surprise Joseph Coletti:
When it comes to purchasing lottery tickets, making people feel poor will prompt them to spend more money on a chance to become rich, American researchers said.
They found that people who were convinced they were earning a low salary bought nearly twice as many lottery tickets compared to others who were made to feel more affluent.
“Lottery tickets are such a bad financial decision. Purchasing the tickets just makes their financial situation worse, which then encourages them to purchase more lottery tickets,” Emily Haisley, who headed the research team, explained. …
“People who run lotteries have a lot of knowledge. They know who buys what types of tickets, they know who their customers are and their advertising certainly plays on the hopes and aspirations of low-income individuals,” Loewenstein said.
A recent report by the Commission on Thrift, a project of the private, non-profit think tank Institute for American Values, said that U.S. households with incomes under $12,400 spend an average of $645 on lotteries.
When they say “People who run lotteries,” remember, they’re talking about the North Carolina General Assembly and the whole host of unsavory deeds, including those by disgraced former Speaker of the House Jim Black, used to ramrod that monstrosity through the legislature to impose it on this state.
