A Tax on the Poor- The Lotto and the Surprisingly Common Sad Aftermath of Winning

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In this video:

It’s been called a voluntary tax on the poor and under educated, with people spending a whopping $60 billion a year in the United States alone on lottery tickets, most of which are purchased by low income individuals. (All total, about 20% of Americans play the lotto). Despite the high number of lotto tickets purchased annually, when playing the lottery (in all its forms), you’ll win an average of just 53 cents for every $1 you spend, making it one of the lowest return rates of any form of commercial gambling, and thus extremely profitable for the various government bodies who run the lotteries.

Want the text version?: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/12/on-average-people-who-earn-less-than-13000-a-year-in-the-u-s-spend-5-of-their-gross-earnings-on-lottery-tickets/

Sources:

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?%20%20abstract_id=1324845##
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11166-008-9041-1
http://wws.princeton.edu/news/Income_Happiness/Happiness_Money_Report.pdf
http://www.smartmoney.com/invest/stocks/why-lottery-winners-go-bankrupt-1301002181742/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/financialfinesse/2012/04/05/three-ways-not-winning-the-lottery-may-make-you-wealthy/

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