This is true as is the nature of "food deserts" in the poorer neighbors, at least where I live – there are higher concentrations of convenience stores, drive-thrus, and gas stations that feature items like tobacco products, alcohol, and lottery tickets that similarly exploit the local populations impulse purchases and eat up what little income they earn from two or more low-paying jobs.

It's viciously cyclical and those sin-taxed items all promote bad habits, harm physical, mental, and spiritual health, and perpetuate check-to-check living and discourage savings. It makes sense to me because many folks in these communities rely on public transit and/or walk to where they need to go, so they buy from what's available.

This is the dark side of liberty where we see that people do not always choose the best options from those available to them when impulse buys are offered , or sometimes, there is far less to choose from for certain populations to begin with.

I recognize I'm oversimplifying and probably have committed more than a few gross stereotypical statements, but I am distressed to see the conditions in a lot of these neighbors, not for me, but because of what I imagine it must be like for a lot of folks who don't have the same opportunities to rise up simply due to the circumstances of their birth.

There is absolutely no good in the lottery and it should be abolished. Any alleged good for education or other programs is more than countered by the harm it does to the lower income populations. Education should be paid for from taxes, and just raise taxes if necessary. My guess is that the money that comes from lotteries don't usually end-up benefiting that much.