Essay on Pros and Cons of the Lottery

Is Buying a Lottery Ticket a Waste of Money?

Kathy B once described people who buy lottery tickets as “People who buy lottery tickets are not people who want to send their kids to college. While buying a lottery lottery may have many advantages and have a huge impact on people’s lives, buying a lottery ticket can also be the demise of people. Win or loss. The first modern lottery started in 1934 in Puerto Rico but was changed to many years later by New Hampshire. Lotteries were created by private organizations to raise money for specific causes such as projects, schools, wars, etc. The first lottery draw took was on the 19th of November 1994 on national television with a grand prize of £5,874,778, unquestionably this seems like a great sum of money to be won amongst 10 people, however, due to the influence of social media this prize pool could instantly change your life for the worst.

Whilst I don’t think the purchase of a lottery ticket is an idiotic idea, I find people who are in debt or are “taking a risk” and have an extremely addictive gambling habit are idiotic as they are wasting their time and money. Studies show that people who average a salary under $10,000 spend on average $597 on lottery tickets. This is more than the average American with a stable job earning over $10,000. Without a question, this is very unhealthy for poorer families as the average spent on the lottery is nearly 6% of their income a year, which could’ve been used for something more reasonable. Furthermore, it is nearly impossible to win the lottery due to its low percentage of winning. According to recent studies, the chances of winning the National Lottery jackpot is 1 in 45,057,474 which is near to impossible. Let’s put this in perspective. The odds of getting struck by lightning is 1 in 700,000 which is greater than winning the lottery. I find people who gain an addiction to spending their hard-earned money on the lottery foolish as their love for gambling will soon become a sudden and hurtful reality to them. On the other hand, there is the argument of other types of gambling such as scratch cards that have a higher chance of winning and making a profit from it. However, if we put this in perspective we can see it’s a horrible source of income and another addiction method organizations use to influence people into purchasing their tickets.

Money is a powerful thing and can change people in many different ways, both mentally and physically. Winning the lottery is a clear path for a drastic change in people. A perfect example of this change is “the gambling addiction” and “greed”. Once your mind is grasped onto a ‘major’ or ‘minor’ win it can alternate your mind immensely for the worse. There’ve been many records of people winning huge sums of money from the jackpot in the past, just to lose it all over a couple of years due to gambling and reckless spending, which in most cases leaves them in the same position they were in when they first bought the ticket. According to an article a man named William Post III won an outstanding $16.2 million from the Pennsylvania lottery in 1988, however, in just 2 years he was over $500,000 in debt and was filed for bankruptcy. This was due to his poor spending decisions such as the purchase of an airplane! This isn’t the first case of lottery winners going bankrupt as research shows that over 70% of lottery winners go either broke or stay in debt their whole lives. This is because they lost the will to take care of their money for the long term and would rather satisfy themselves for a short period without even knowing. As the person begins to win, the addiction and the satisfaction begin to increase as they play again and again and spend higher bets on lotteries.

Playing the lottery can result in a loss of life. As I mentioned before the lottery can “change people” for the worst. Another example of this is the family betraying each other. An article states that a man named Jeffrey Dampier won approximately $20 million from a lottery jackpot in 1996. He thought he “had it all” as he was living the time of his life until his ex-wife divorced him. However, it was soon discovered in 2005 that his sister-in-law Victoria Jackson, and her boyfriend murdered him in his van with a shotgun. This shows winning the lottery can have a huge negative impact on people's lives, especially on families. Jeffrey Dampier offered to pay for her sister's debt and finances but it wasn’t enough to satisfy Victoria Jackson as her greed grew which eventually drew her to force her boyfriend Nathaniel Jackson to take his life. This isn’t the first case of people losing their lives over a lottery win as a case study shows that a man named Abraham Shakespeare hit the jackpot of $30 million in Florida in 2006. But was seemed to have gone missing in the same year of his winnings. His corpse was found underneath a concrete slab in April 2009. This just shows the vast amount of greed and jealousy that certain people can contain in themselves to commit such felonies to satisfy themselves.

Save your time!
We can take care of your essay

• Proper editing and formatting
• Free revision, title page, and bibliography
• Flexible prices and money-back guarantee

Place Order

Winning the lottery may have many cons but they’re many pros to entering the lottery. People need to know how to use their money sensibly instead of risking losing it through gambling. Some lottery winners would admit the addiction of spending is difficult to stop spending recklessly however they need to keep in account that their money won’t last forever. An article shows that a smart man named Brad Duke won $220 million invested his money and miraculously tripled his winnings becoming a billionaire. 70% of lottery winners either go broke or back into the same position as they started due to poor experience. However, this wasn’t the case for Brad Duke as he used his money sensibly and generated profit. Additionally, they’re other ways to use your winnings that can create an impact, for example, an article shows that a Canadian man won an outstanding $40 million from a jackpot but didn’t use any money to treat himself as he donated all of it to a charity which is in memory of his wife, who unfortunately died of cancer. This shows the generosity of some people as it takes a lot of courage to do an action of this sort.

The problem with the lottery jackpot that makes it so addictive or evil is the amount of money that is offered to the winner for such a reasonable price but such a low chance. However, cheaper scratch cards have become an optional route for overspending risk-takers. Cheaper scratch cards have a higher win rate than the lottery, the chance of winning a prize is 1 in 3.45. We could almost consider this a “light gamble”. This may influence players who purchase these lottery tickets to aim a little and or even generate an addiction but this method is a subtle way of spending little cash to make your money back or even a profit.

The biggest advantage of winning the lottery is the satisfaction of never having to work a single day in your life. This is the biggest stress reliever that anyone could wish for. Additionally, you need to use your money wisely as your winnings won’t last forever. The smartest thing to do is to hire a financial advisor to help you make the best decisions for the future. People need to learn to keep a balance and not to be persuaded by everyday things that will result in their money being wasted, lottery winners need to learn how to balance their everyday spending as in a few years they’ll eventually end up back in the same spot without the job they started with.

Playing the lottery may have more cons than pros. Getting addicted over winning from scratch cards or even the jackpot can make you and your family's lives harder, once you are addicted it’s hard to come back from it. Playing the lottery has caused deaths but has also changed many people’s lives by using their money wisely. Finally, inexperienced people should learn how to take care of their money in the long run as it will not last forever and may leave them in the same spot they were in when they bought the ticket.