State lotteries are a compromise: They inhibit underground lotteries. The goal of the state lotteries is to divert people away from the danger of the underground while keeping itself from being overly attractive.
Accessibility and marketing matters.
It has always been a significant part of 20-30 yo male paychecks, now it's just acceptable to advertise on ESPN.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1332999/gross-gaming-rev...
As someone who was a 20-30 year old male for 10 years, it’s not something I would have ever considered, the effort, risk, and return doesn’t seem worth it vs. just buying VTI or SCHB and then letting them sit?
Are the majority of 20s males really gambling a significant percentage of post-tax on sports? Has this displaced social fantasy football type games or the basketball brackets?
You have ex-crypto/dropship bros who turned to sport betting to make 'millions'. basically they're rolled by the apps for half their bets, their winnings are the payment, and their balance is always positive since their EV is 1.60 (when normal customers EV is .80).
That, plus advertising on college sports (including 'free bets'), it is really a big thing, even for 30yo+ people to be fair.
In most (or at least a lot of) countries states regulate casinos _so much_ than it becomes almost a technicality that casinos are privately owned.
Also with lotteries you have the scale factor -- in order to have an attractive lottery, you need a ton of ticket buyers, so if you have a national level lottery you can definitely make neighborhood lotteries way less appealing.
Blackjack and poker tables don't scale the same way.
Most of the lotteries were started with the promise that they would "fund education" but in reality dollars are fungible. To the extent that they even try to maintain the facade, that's all that it is.
This doesn't matter. It's that they're given for a separate service, vs compulsory extraction. That's the reality.