In a recent ABC News report, gambling addiction specialists said state officials need to do more to provide services to lottery addicts, who primarily are from minority and low-income groups.
Gambling counselor Billy Hoffman told ABC News lottery addicts, even if they don’t win, still are compelled to try again to hit the jackpot. “They’re trying to find a way out, and it just gets them further and further in the hole,” he said.
A 2022 nationwide investigation of state lotteries by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland indicated in nearly every state that offers a lottery, lottery ticket retailers mainly are concentrated in lower-income communities.
Stop Predatory Gambling National Director Les Bernal told ABC News although states use lottery sales revenue to fund services like public education, they are doing so at the expense of low-income residents. Bernal said, “This is definitely a form of systemic racism that has occurred. They have shifted the tax burden away from middle-class taxpayers and from property.”
The Tax Foundation, a nonprofit think tank, said about 60 percent of state lottery winnings go directly to the winners. But lottery critics said states need to do a better job distributing more lottery revenue to programs and services for problem gamblers.
In 2022, the Virginia Lottery, which uses revenue to fund public schools, received a “D” grade from the nonprofit Education Law Center based on how it allocates money to high-poverty districts.
In response to ABC News, Virginia Lottery officials said, the lottery “has a proven track record of working to raise awareness of problem gambling and gambling addiction, going far beyond what is required by law to do. While Virginia law requires all lottery profits to go to K-12 education, the lottery has been repeatedly recognized as a leader in the industry when it comes to using its resources and high public profile to raise awareness and encourage responsible play.”
