STATE LOTTERY – ENTERTAINMENT OR EXPLOITATION?

Is it ethical to promote lottery tickets?

Q. I work for a state lottery. Sometimes I wonder if we are taking unfair
advantage of our customers’ dreams of riches. RDV

A. Your question is a common one. What makes it complex is that lotteries,
like other gambling games, mean different things to different people.

For some people, gambling is a form of entertainment. Just like some
people play cards for fun and introduce stakes just to make things
interesting, so some people enjoy testing their luck and look at the
jackpot as a way of adding excitement. For these people, gambling losses
belong to their recreation budget. That’s not morally objectionable. One
person who has a dollar to throw away puts four quarters into a video
game; another has more fun investing in a Powerball ticket.

A few people gamble in order to lose. They want to show off how much money
they have. While such conspicuous consumption is certainly objectionable,
the business providing the service is not necessarily to blame.

Some people even have a charitable intention. They know that income from
state lotteries goes to worthy causes, and the possibility of winning is
only a little incentive. The administrators of one popular lottery system
claim that the profits go to the following good causes: mass
transportation in Arizona; education in Connecticut; economic development
in Kansas; natural resources in Minnesota; school aid and crime control in
Montana, etc.

But there are a significant number of individuals who perceive gambling as
a viable road to riches. They play the lottery because they feel they
could use the money -- oblivious to the research that shows that winning a
jackpot is more than likely to make their lives miserable. (This is called
“sudden wealth syndrome.”) What they could really use is the precious few
dollars they are throwing away on tickets. Selling tickets to these poor
souls is improper. According to Jewish law, it borders on theft.

If these disappointed dreamers constitute a significant fraction of your
business, or alternatively if advertising is deliberately directed at
them, then you are taking advantage of them. You should try and find out
what the numbers are and take a careful look at the advertising campaign
for your state lottery.

At a deeper level, a person should recognize that there is something
fundamentally phony about gambling. We can learn this from the saintly
Rabbi Aryeh Levine of Jerusalem, of blessed memory. Rabbi Aryeh merited
seeing many miracles performed for him, and someone once asked him why he
never bought lottery tickets. He gave a surprising answer: “I’m afraid I
might win.” A person with a truly enlightened perspective doesn’t even
desire unearned riches -- especially if he or she recalls the words of our
Sages, which are confirmed by current research: “The more possessions, the
more worry.”

SOURCES: Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat 34:16, Yoreh Deah 151; Mishna
Avot 2:7.

For more information on the Jewish Ethicist, or to read previous columns,
visit www.jewishethicist.com

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