Is the Lottery just a Tax on the Poor and Uneducated?

Many people say playing the lottery is a waste of money and it's just another way to tax the poor and uneducated. This couldn't be further from the truth. People from all walks of life play the lottery. I have a BS in IT and I know many other educated people who are my friends and coworkers that play the lottery. There are many educated people who have won the lottery and here are some to name a few. There is Robert Uomini, a Berkeley math professor, who picked his own numbers (10 19 22 26 39 43) for the California SuperLotto and won $22 million. There is Shirley Press, a Pediatric Doctor, who played some quick picks and won the Florida Lotto $56 million jackpot. Then there's the amazing Joan Ginther, the woman whom newspapers dubbed “The Luckiest Woman in the World." She is a former math professor with a Ph. D. in Statistics from Stanford University, who picked her own numbers (1 4 7 10 47 50) for Lotto Texas and won a $5.4 million portion of an $11 million jackpot split with another Texan who ironically picked the same numbers. Then over a decade later Ginther went on a scratch-off tear and won three top prizes from the Texas Lottery scratch-off games worth $2 million, $3 million, and $10 million within a 5 year period.

Also, your money isn't just being wasted, by playing the lottery you help support your state by generating revenue for public education and state programs. I view the lottery as a form of entertainment and most people spend way more on other forms of entertainment than they do on the lottery. Going to the movie theatre to buy tickets, snacks, and drinks will put a bigger dent in your wallet than playing the lottery responsibly ever will. By going to the movies you just make the movie theatre owners, movie companies, directors, and actors rich, and they won't invest anything back into your state. I'm not against the movie industry but I am just making a point that playing the lottery isn't just a waste of money as compared to spending your money on other things. While most other entertainment expenses won’t give you any money in return at least playing the lottery gives you a chance to break even, a chance to win small to significant monetary prizes, and even a chance to win a top prize or jackpot that can make you rich.