Tuesday, January 19, 2016

The Effects of the Powerball Lottery

abcnews.com
We all wanted to win the 1.5 billion dollar Powerball ticket but unfortunately our dreams have been crushed by the lucky winners. There was about 17,000 tickets sold per minute and only a few of those tickets sold got anything out of it. The Powerball lottery took many american’s interest and we could be mad that so many spent their hard-earned money to help someone else win the prize, however they could also think about how the lottery may have actually helped more people than just the big winners. The small winners won a million dollars by just having 3 numbers match. Convenient store sales went up significantly because people would often buy other things when coming in to get a Powerball ticket. The government raised money for education from the lottery. According to the SF Chronicle,"about 25 to 30 percent of all California lottery revenue goes to state education." Overall it seems like there was quite a bit of good that came out of the Powerball despite it causing most of the population to become gamblers.













Questions:
What do you think about the Powerball giving money to education?
Do you think the Powerball helped or hurt more people?
Sources:
http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Is-Powerball-fever-helping-California-schools-6751974.php










2 comments:

Teague Bredl said...

I think the taxes on the lottery and the taxes on the lottery winners help a lot. If a quarter of the revenue goes towards education, that would make for a lot of money to be spent on books and other great things. Unfortunately, it's easier to get people to buy lottery tickets than providing financial assistance to the local schools. And I think the Powerball can't really hurt people on it's own, it isn't like casino gambling because the buy in is so cheap ($2-$3) and you know you won't win. Me and my boss at Trader Joe's were talking about it, and even if you lose (which you will) you get at least a couple days of daydreaming. After buying that ticket, you can just think about what you would do with millions of dollars and that on it's own is worth the couple of dollars you pay.

Ora Noble said...

I think it is not about hurting anyone but rather about the disappointment and the pipe dreams. It is a voluntary matter to play or not to lose or not. It did it online, thelotter review. All it gave me was a disappointment but I do not feel hurt. Good luck to you next time!