Posted on: Friday, August 31, 2001

Editorial
Hawai'i doesn't need mega-jackpot lottery

What wouldn't you do for the chance of winning a share of a $295 million lottery jackpot? Be careful how you answer.

The Powerball lottery game has been all the buzz lately, with four ticket-holders eligible to receive an equal share of that mind-boggling amount.

It wasn't the biggest payoff, by far. Last year two players in Illinois and Michigan split a $363 million Big Game jackpot.

How do the prize numbers get so high? First, many of the states offering lotteries, fearful of falling behind burgeoning gambling establishments in other states, have combined with other states to boost the size of the ticket-sales base.

And second, they have discovered that reducing the chance of winning can actually boost ticket sales. "The lower the odds of winning," reports the New York Times, "the more the jackpots go unclaimed and roll over into a bigger grand prize." And higher numbers bring bigger ticket sales.

Powerball cut its odds from 1 in 55 million to one in 80 million; Big Game narrowed its chances from 1 in 53 million to 1 in 76 million. The slimmer odds and the worsening economy affected sales in a way you might not have predicted: Powerball sales this year are 40 percent ahead of last year, with 600 million tickets sold for the latest drawing — 204 million in the last three days.

But the repeat player is the driving force for the lottery mania. "Lotteries have collectively taken the name 'the fool's tax' because the odds of winning are so small," writes the Times.

"The biggest players are disproportionately poor and uneducated," it says. "The top 20 percent of players, who spend an average of more than $4 on tickets each day, account for more than 80 percent of all sales. They are almost twice as likely as the average adult both to have dropped out of high school and to have a household income under $10,000."

These games couldn't succeed without droves of die-hard players who buy in bulk despite infinitesimal odds. As P.T. Barnum said, "There's a sucker born every minute" — and the state governments running lotteries are in the odious business of exploiting them for all they're worth.

Hawai'i should be proud it is not part of that company.