Oh, I'm not above buying the occasional ticket, either -- for that matter, I like playing Blackjack and view any losses incurred as entertainment.

However, people at the lower end of the income spend a lot more of their money (proportionally) on lottery tickets. [1]

And states are increasingly dependent on those revenues [2], which means in effect we've got a system where our schools become dependent on our lowest income population wasting money on what is essentially a pipe dream.

Note: I'm not saying "we've got to stop lotteries!" As I said: I play myself. Just noting that we are funding our government on the backs of people who are making what is arguably a terrible investment.

In other words: lotteries are a tax on people with bad math skills.

[1] Lots of studies back that up; there's a pretty good list here: http://stoppredatorygambling.org/blog/category/research-cent...

[2] http://taxfoundation.org/article/gambling-tax-policy-states-...