- The lottery is a massive moneymaker, generating $68 billion in sales last year alone.
- Lottery commercials are everywhere and are incredibly seductive.
- Lower-income households spend a higher percentage of their money on lottery tickets.
- The lottery sells hope, but the chances of winning are extremely low.
- Even when people do win big, their lives often take a turn for the worse.
- The lottery can be addictive, and states are expanding into more addictive products like video slot machines.
- Oregon's lottery income mostly comes from video slots and poker, which are highly lucrative but addictive.
- The ubiquity of these machines puts people in serious danger.
- State lawmakers continue to approve these practices despite the negative consequences.

- State lotteries were initially launched under the guise of benefiting education.
- However, investigations reveal that in 21 out of 24 states, lotteries do not provide any additional funding for education.
- North Carolina, for example, spends less per student on education than it did before the lottery was implemented.
- Money in state budgets tends to be reallocated, making it difficult to add funds for a specific purpose.
- Despite these findings, states continue to support lotteries and are even expanding to mobile platforms.
- Lotteries are compared to alcohol, as both are enjoyed by many, but it would be strange if the state advertised alcohol sales as benefiting education.

State lotteries claim to be good for education and the general wellbeing of citizens.
But are they? (Spoiler alert: No.)

Connect with Last Week Tonight online...
Subscribe to the Last Week Tonight YouTube channel for more almost news as it almost happens: www.youtube.com/user/LastWeekTonight

Find Last Week Tonight on Facebook like your mom would:
http://Facebook.com/LastWeekTonight

Follow us on Twitter for news about jokes and jokes about news:
http://Twitter.com/LastWeekTonight

Visit our official site for all that other stuff at once:
http://www.hbo.com/lastweektonight

It's the second best use of magic marker on ping pong balls after Kermit the Frog's eyes.

Now, this past week saw a huge Mega Millions draw.

A big winning lottery ticket was sold in New York.

Lots of people around here have been peeking at their lottery tickets this morning.

Mega Millions mystery this evening, that $321 million jackpot,

Well, the winner shouldn't be too hard to find.

If someone at your work this week marched in and told everyone to go fuck themselves before flipping their desk over and storming out, that's probably your winner right there.

But don't worry if you didn't hit the jackpot.

You will frankly have an unbelievable number of other opportunities to play.

Forty-four states currently have lotteries, and you can't have missed the commercials featuring everything from a ping-pong ball thunderstorm to a furry dressed as a cat playing with a ball of money to a weird lucky man who for some reason decided to spend his lottery winnings terrifying a penguin by taking it hand-gliding.

And that is a bizarrely specific use of a big lottery win.

Look, if my numbers come up, I'm strapping a penguin to my chest, and I'm taking to the skies.

Lottery commercials are incredibly seductive, and they're also everywhere.

States spend half a billion dollars on them every year, and the reason they do that is that the lottery is a massive moneymaker for them.

Last year alone, lottery sales totaled about $68 billion.

That's more than Americans spent last year on movie tickets, music, porn, the NFL, Major League Baseball, and video games combined.

Which means Americans basically spent more on the lottery than they spent on America.

And if you think about it, it's a little strange for the government to be running what is basically a gigantic gambling business.

But we don't think about lotteries like that.

Perhaps because they're sold to us more as charitable foundations.

3000000000 dollars for education opens a lot of doors.

That's why over 5000000000 in lottery dollars have gone to support public education.

Every time you play a New York Lottery game, a portion of your sale goes to aid New York State school children just like them.

Those ads are basically implying that anyone who does not play the lottery is selfish.

Hey, what do you want to educate these harmonizing children, you fucking monster?

Everybody wins, the lottery does good things, and it's game-changing, life-changing fun.

The lottery generates $68 billion in sales a year.

Over the course of the last 2 decades, multiple studies have found lower-income households spend a higher percentage of their money on lottery tickets.

Lots of people like to gamble, and for lower-income households, the lottery is an affordable way to do it.

Generally, when wealthy people want to take risks with their money, they either choose to invest in the stock market, or they leave their wife for Amber without signing a prenup, because Amber's forever.

She's a little tiring, but she'll be there.

The lottery is in the business of selling people hope, and they do a great job of that.

A game with jackpots worthy of your dreams.

But crucially, the lottery is not an investment, because it's worth mentioning that those mega dreams are mega unlikely to happen.

Winning the mega millions is akin to getting struck by

lightning at the same time you're being eaten by a shark.

That is both an evocative image and an amazing pitch for a movie.

Okay, so there's this guy, he's getting eaten by a shark, see?

Lightning hits him, he switches minds with the shark, The shark wins the lottery.

Now, now, the lottery does have some smaller games and prizes where the odds are a little better, but even then, it pays out a much lower percentage of its revenues than even horse racing.

And the worst part is, when you lose the lottery and you're angry with your ticket, you don't even have the satisfaction of knowing that it'll be turned into dog food.

And yet, and yet, we are still drawn to the lottery.

Partly because we're told to ignore the odds.

In the time it took you to watch that montage, I went out and bought all of these lottery tickets.

But even when people do win big, things have a tendency to go south fast.

We've all seen tragic headlines about lottery winners like a lottery winner blows through 27 million, lottery winner found dead in bed, or brother hired hitman over 16 million jackpot win.

It seems winning the lottery can be like marrying Tom Cruise.

You might even dream about it happening 1 day.

But if it actually does, 5 years later, the magic will be over, you'll be estranged from your family, and you will have seen things you can never unsee.

In Israel, lottery winners are actually photographed wearing masks to protect their identities.

And in the 90s, this is how 1 man from Gaza collected his prize.

Most lottery winners don't turn up with a bag over their head, but this 24-year-old Palestinian wanted to remain anonymous.

Winning the lottery is such a curse, that you can find yourself in the Middle East with a bag over your head because something good happened to you.

The lottery can be extremely addictive, and states know this.

Many lotteries offer resources to help problem gamblers.

The Illinois Lottery even has a section on their website for responsible gaming.

Although when we clicked on the link, we got, and this is true, a pop-up ad for the lotto.

There is a reason that the first step in a 12-step program isn't, congratulations on starting the program, why not reward yourself with a refreshing gin and tonic?

I'm sure that that is just an innocent mistake, just like I'm sure that it's a coincidence that if you Google lottery intervention, this is what comes up.

Play the new DC Fast Play games from the DC Lottery.

Lottery deserves a promotion before they go directly to hell.

And at the very same time, they're supposedly addressing problem gambling.

States are actively expanding into even more addictive products.

Makes about a billion dollars every 2 years for the state, about 80% of it, maybe even more, 86, 90%.

That's what we're running right there on the screen.

Comes from 1 source, and that's these video machines.

Mostly video slot machines or video poker.

The vast majority of Oregon's lottery income comes from video slots and video poker.

Meaning that Oregon claims this is a lottery machine.

And of course we all remember Martin Scorsese's movie, Lottery.

Machines, machines like these are not only addictive, they're incredibly lucrative.

Internal Oregon lottery data indicates that regular lottery players lost an average of $106 per year.

Whereas video poker and slots players lost an average of $2,564.

You could buy a 98 Mazda with that money, and you should, you should.

It's got a moon roof and six-way speakers.

You should get in it right now and drive in the opposite direction of any video poker machine.

Although, good luck with that if you live in Oregon, because these machines are everywhere.

There are more than 12,000 of them in the state.

And that kind of ubiquity puts some people in serious danger.

My boyfriend and I have gotten into fights over, You know, I'll go out, you know, I'm just going somewhere with a friend of mine and I end up playing video poker and we're supposed to go to the store to buy food and I come home with no food and no money.

You know, as soon as I walk in the door, he knows.

Remember, the machines that are causing her such trouble are run by the state.

A state which proclaims its lottery does good things.

At this point I'm thinking it may not be a coincidence that the logo for the Oregon State Lottery is someone crossing their fingers the universal sign for lying.

Okay, so, so maybe, maybe the next question...

Why do state lawmakers keep approving all this?

Well, as those singing children told us, lotteries are really all about good causes like education, and that's always been the excuse.

State lotteries were illegal in this country until 1964, when New Hampshire launched the first 1, under the guise of a very familiar message.

How come you're buying 1 of these tickets?

This is the first 1 in our country, and I would like to participate in it.

And I also feel that it's for a very good cause...

I don't think there's a better reason for buying 1 of these.

Well, there probably isn't a better reason, but there are plenty of better ways to fund education.

Sales tax, bake sale, or simply putting cash into an envelope, writing school on the front of it, and mailing it.

For all the claims that lotteries are a huge boost to education, the reality is a little different.

Our investigation of government spending in the 24 states that dedicate lottery funds for education yields a stunningly bad report card.

The percentage of state spending on education is down or flat in 21 of those states, from coast to coast.

Lotteries provided no additional funding for education in 21 out of 24 states.

As math students in 1 of those places would put it, that is nearly 50 percent.

Their governor inaugurated the North Carolina Education Lottery nearly a decade ago, with big promises.

When the lottery is fully implemented, we'll be adding another half billion dollars annually for education.

You'd think by now, all North Carolina preschoolers would be strutting around in fine bespoke suits, quoting Nietzsche and Kierkegaard.

But in fact, North Carolina currently spends less per student on education than it did when the lottery even began.

And if you're thinking, how the fuck is that possible, it's because money in state budgets tends to move around a lot.

Trying to add money just for 1 purpose is a bit like trying to piss in 1 corner of a swimming pool.

It's going all over the place, no matter what you claim.

In 2012, North Carolina used $100 million of lottery money for school construction.

But that didn't mean the school construction budget was 100 million bigger than it would have been.

Because while that money was flowing in, other money was flowing out.

A portion of corporate income taxes used to go toward construction, but when the lottery passed, that tax money went away, substituted with lottery revenue.

And where did that corporate tax money go?

There's not even a warm spot where it once was.

But in a completely unconnected development, North Carolina plans to cut corporate taxes substantially over the next few years.

So thanks for playing the education lottery, North Carolina.

But despite all this, states are not only keeping faith in lotteries, they're doubling down and trying to reach new players by putting it on your cell phone.

Illinois launched an app this year to let you buy tickets on your phone, which is terrifying.

Because we all know that if, starting right now, your mother could play the lottery as easily as she plays Candy Crush, in 3 weeks, she'd be preparing Thanksgiving dinner over a trash can fire.

I'm sure that Illinois will make the same argument that everyone does to justify state-sponsored gambling.

Except, as I think we've seen by now, lotteries are bad for losers, often bad for winners, and a pretty compromising way to assist state budgets.

Most people like it, some are addicted to it, and it's not like the state can or should outlaw it altogether.

But it would be a little strange if the state was in the liquor business, advertising it by claiming that every shot of vodka you drink helps schoolchildren learn.


Speaker 0: -♪ ♪ -♪ ♪ The lottery. It's the second best use of magic marker on ping pong balls after Kermit the Frog's eyes. Now, this past week saw a huge Mega Millions draw.

Speaker 1: A big winning lottery ticket was sold in New York. Lots of people around here have been peeking at their lottery tickets this morning.

Speaker 2: In the

Speaker 3: Mega Millions mystery this evening, that $321 million jackpot,

Speaker 4: the search for the winner is on tonight.

Speaker 0: Well, the winner shouldn't be too hard to find. If someone at your work this week marched in and told everyone to go fuck themselves before flipping their desk over and storming out, that's probably your winner right there. But don't worry if you didn't hit the jackpot. You will frankly have an unbelievable number of other opportunities to play. Forty-four states currently have lotteries, and you can't have missed the commercials featuring everything from a ping-pong ball thunderstorm to a furry dressed as a cat playing with a ball of money to a weird lucky man who for some reason decided to spend his lottery winnings terrifying a penguin by taking it hand-gliding.

And that is a bizarrely specific use of a big lottery win. Look, if my numbers come up, I'm strapping a penguin to my chest, and I'm taking to the skies. Fuck you, evolution! I decide who flies! That's my choice!

My choice! Lottery commercials. Lottery commercials are incredibly seductive, and they're also everywhere. States spend half a billion dollars on them every year, and the reason they do that is that the lottery is a massive moneymaker for them.

Speaker 5: Last year alone, lottery sales totaled about $68 billion.

Speaker 0: Sixty-eight billion. That's more than Americans spent last year on movie tickets, music, porn, the NFL, Major League Baseball, and video games combined. Which means Americans basically spent more on the lottery than they spent on America. And... And if you think about it, it's a little strange for the government to be running what is basically a gigantic gambling business.

But we don't think about lotteries like that. Perhaps because they're sold to us more as charitable foundations.

Speaker 6: 3000000000 dollars for education opens a lot of doors. The Tennessee Lottery. Game-changing, life-changing fun.

Speaker 7: Education matters to Oregonians. That's why over 5000000000 in lottery dollars have gone to support public education. The Oregon Lottery, it does good things.

Speaker 1: Every time you play a New York Lottery game, a portion of your sale goes to aid New York State school children just like them. New York Lottery. Everybody Wins.

Speaker 0: Thank you for being a friend. Those ads are basically implying that anyone who does not play the lottery is selfish. Hey, what do you want to educate these harmonizing children, you fucking monster? So, let's take a look at those slogans. Everybody wins, the lottery does good things, and it's game-changing, life-changing fun.

Is it, does it, and do they? Let's start with the basics. The lottery generates $68 billion in sales a year. So where does that money come from?

Speaker 5: Over the course of the last 2 decades, multiple studies have found lower-income households spend a higher percentage of their money on lottery tickets.

Speaker 0: Okay, that kind of makes sense. Lots of people like to gamble, and for lower-income households, the lottery is an affordable way to do it. Generally, when wealthy people want to take risks with their money, they either choose to invest in the stock market, or they leave their wife for Amber without signing a prenup, because Amber's forever. Besides, she just gets you. She's a little tiring, but she'll be there.

The lottery is in the business of selling people hope, and they do a great job of that.

Speaker 8: Start a college fund for our kids.

Speaker 9: Start a college fund for their kids. A game with jackpots worthy of your dreams. Mega Millions. Dream Mega.

Speaker 0: That feels like an ad for a mutual fund. But crucially, the lottery is not an investment, because it's worth mentioning that those mega dreams are mega unlikely to happen.

Speaker 10: What are the real chances of winning? A lousy 1 in 176 million.

Speaker 11: Winning the mega millions is akin to getting struck by

Speaker 12: lightning at the same time you're being eaten by a shark.

Speaker 0: Okay. That is both an evocative image and an amazing pitch for a movie. Okay, so there's this guy, he's getting eaten by a shark, see? Lightning hits him, he switches minds with the shark, The shark wins the lottery. It's Freaky Rite-A meets Jaws.

I'm calling it Slum Shark Gillionaire. Slum Shark Gillionaire. -$1,000. -$1,000. Channing Tatum has passed.

Now, now, the lottery does have some smaller games and prizes where the odds are a little better, but even then, it pays out a much lower percentage of its revenues than even horse racing. And the worst part is, when you lose the lottery and you're angry with your ticket, you don't even have the satisfaction of knowing that it'll be turned into dog food. And yet, and yet, we are still drawn to the lottery. Partly because we're told to ignore the odds.

Speaker 13: It's your dream. Anything can happen.

Speaker 9: Dream, play, win. Hey, You never know.

Speaker 5: Power your dreams for just 2 bucks. I've got the power!

Speaker 0: Those ads are so effective. In the time it took you to watch that montage, I went out and bought all of these lottery tickets. Someone's gotta win! It might as well be me! But even when people do win big, things have a tendency to go south fast.

We've all seen tragic headlines about lottery winners like a lottery winner blows through 27 million, lottery winner found dead in bed, or brother hired hitman over 16 million jackpot win. It seems winning the lottery can be like marrying Tom Cruise. Sure, it seems amazing in your mind. You might even dream about it happening 1 day. But if it actually does, 5 years later, the magic will be over, you'll be estranged from your family, and you will have seen things you can never unsee.

Never. -♪ ♪ -♪ In Israel... In Israel, lottery winners are actually photographed wearing masks to protect their identities. And in the 90s, this is how 1 man from Gaza collected his prize. Most lottery winners don't turn up with a bag over their head, but this 24-year-old Palestinian wanted to remain anonymous.

That's right. Winning the lottery is such a curse, that you can find yourself in the Middle East with a bag over your head because something good happened to you.

Speaker 2: -...happened to you. -...happened to you.

Speaker 0: So, so why do people play? Well, for some, they can't stop. The lottery can be extremely addictive, and states know this. Many lotteries offer resources to help problem gamblers. The Illinois Lottery even has a section on their website for responsible gaming.

Although when we clicked on the link, we got, and this is true, a pop-up ad for the lotto. Seriously, Illinois? There is a reason that the first step in a 12-step program isn't, congratulations on starting the program, why not reward yourself with a refreshing gin and tonic? Cheers. But look, I'm sure...

I'm sure that that is just an innocent mistake, just like I'm sure that it's a coincidence that if you Google lottery intervention, this is what comes up. Ahh!

Speaker 3: Need a lottery intervention? Play the new DC Fast Play games from the DC Lottery.

Speaker 0: Feel the thrill of winning instantly. Are you kidding me? Someone at the D.C. Lottery deserves a promotion before they go directly to hell. And at the very same time, they're supposedly addressing problem gambling.

States are actively expanding into even more addictive products. Just look at Oregon.

Speaker 14: The lottery takes in about a... Makes about a billion dollars every 2 years for the state, about 80% of it, maybe even more, 86, 90%. Yeah,

Speaker 13: That's what we're running right there on the screen. Boy.

Speaker 14: Comes from 1 source, and that's these video machines. Mostly video slot machines or video poker.

Speaker 0: The vast majority of Oregon's lottery income comes from video slots and video poker. Meaning that Oregon claims this is a lottery machine. Because of course it is. Just like this is a lottery wheel. And this is a lottery table.

And of course we all remember Martin Scorsese's movie, Lottery. Machines, machines like these are not only addictive, they're incredibly lucrative. Internal Oregon lottery data indicates that regular lottery players lost an average of $106 per year. Whereas video poker and slots players lost an average of $2,564. That's an insane amount of money.

You could buy a 98 Mazda with that money, and you should, you should. It's got a moon roof and six-way speakers. You should get in it right now and drive in the opposite direction of any video poker machine. Although, good luck with that if you live in Oregon, because these machines are everywhere. There are more than 12,000 of them in the state.

And that kind of ubiquity puts some people in serious danger.

Speaker 15: My boyfriend and I have gotten into fights over, You know, I'll go out, you know, I'm just going somewhere with a friend of mine and I end up playing video poker and we're supposed to go to the store to buy food and I come home with no food and no money. You know, as soon as I walk in the door, he knows. And then we don't have any food.

Speaker 0: Remember, the machines that are causing her such trouble are run by the state. A state which proclaims its lottery does good things. At this point I'm thinking it may not be a coincidence that the logo for the Oregon State Lottery is someone crossing their fingers the universal sign for lying. Okay, so, so maybe, maybe the next question... Maybe the next question should be this.

Why do state lawmakers keep approving all this? Well, as those singing children told us, lotteries are really all about good causes like education, and that's always been the excuse. State lotteries were illegal in this country until 1964, when New Hampshire launched the first 1, under the guise of a very familiar message.

Speaker 12: How come you're buying 1 of these tickets?

Speaker 13: This is the first 1 in our country, and I would like to participate in it. And I also feel that it's for a very good cause... Of education.

Speaker 12: I don't think there's a better reason for buying 1 of these.

Speaker 0: Well, there probably isn't a better reason, but there are plenty of better ways to fund education. Sales tax, bake sale, or simply putting cash into an envelope, writing school on the front of it, and mailing it. Because... -...for all the claims... -$1.5 million.

For all the claims that lotteries are a huge boost to education, the reality is a little different.

Speaker 10: Our investigation of government spending in the 24 states that dedicate lottery funds for education yields a stunningly bad report card. The percentage of state spending on education is down or flat in 21 of those states, from coast to coast.

Speaker 0: Lotteries provided no additional funding for education in 21 out of 24 states. As math students in 1 of those places would put it, that is nearly 50 percent. -... How is this... How is this possible?

Well, look, let's... Let's just look at North Carolina. Their governor inaugurated the North Carolina Education Lottery nearly a decade ago, with big promises.

Speaker 5: When the lottery is fully implemented, we'll be adding another half billion dollars annually for education.

Speaker 0: Half a billion extra. That sounds great. You'd think by now, all North Carolina preschoolers would be strutting around in fine bespoke suits, quoting Nietzsche and Kierkegaard. But in fact, North Carolina currently spends less per student on education than it did when the lottery even began. And if you're thinking, how the fuck is that possible, it's because money in state budgets tends to move around a lot.

Trying to add money just for 1 purpose is a bit like trying to piss in 1 corner of a swimming pool. It's going all over the place, no matter what you claim. Let me give you just a narrow example. In 2012, North Carolina used $100 million of lottery money for school construction. But that didn't mean the school construction budget was 100 million bigger than it would have been.

Because while that money was flowing in, other money was flowing out.

Speaker 7: A portion of corporate income taxes used to go toward construction, but when the lottery passed, that tax money went away, substituted with lottery revenue.

Speaker 0: And where did that corporate tax money go? Who knows? There's not even a warm spot where it once was. But in a completely unconnected development, North Carolina plans to cut corporate taxes substantially over the next few years. So thanks for playing the education lottery, North Carolina.

Better luck next time! But despite all this, states are not only keeping faith in lotteries, they're doubling down and trying to reach new players by putting it on your cell phone. Illinois launched an app this year to let you buy tickets on your phone, which is terrifying. Because we all know that if, starting right now, your mother could play the lottery as easily as she plays Candy Crush, in 3 weeks, she'd be preparing Thanksgiving dinner over a trash can fire. But...

But I'm sure... I'm sure that Illinois will make the same argument that everyone does to justify state-sponsored gambling. Hey, it brings in money for good causes. Except, as I think we've seen by now, lotteries are bad for losers, often bad for winners, and a pretty compromising way to assist state budgets. Think about it this way.

Gambling is a little like alcohol. Most people like it, some are addicted to it, and it's not like the state can or should outlaw it altogether. But it would be a little strange if the state was in the liquor business, advertising it by claiming that every shot of vodka you drink helps schoolchildren learn. Yeah. -♪ Thank me for being a friend.

♪ -♪ Thank me for

Speaker 2: being a friend. ♪ -♪ Thank me for being a friend. ♪ -♪ Thank me for being a friend.

Speaker 0: ♪ I'm gonna get those kids an iPad! I'm a winner! Everybody's a winner!

Speaker 2: You

See all LastWeekTonight transcripts on Youtube

The Lottery: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)