Lottery Systems

Thomas A. Mayes

Lotteries are common sources of financial support for education. Their use for this purpose is politically popular; however, their effectiveness as a source of revenue is limited, at best. Moreover, several persons have raised moral objections and pointed to negative economic consequences of lotteries. In spite of those objections, lotteries (and other gambling activities) are a multi-billion-dollar industry in the United States and will most likely remain a part of public education for the foreseeable future. A lottery has three elements under the law: “consideration” (or an entry fee, which may but need not be money), a prize (cash or otherwise), and chance. If skill is involved (such as by solving a puzzle or making a hole-in-one), then the transaction, while it may still be gambling, is not considered a lottery. Varieties of lotteries include preprinted scratch-off tickets and pull-tab tickets, and drawings of numbers, such as Pick Three and ...

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