State lotteries cluster their retailers in low-income areas, according to a new study.
A nationwide study of U.S. state lotteries by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland found that lottery retailers—now active in all but five states—are disproportionately clustered in lower-income communities in nearly every state.
The study also used cell phone location data to conclude that people living in those low-income areas are the ones who patronize those retailer locations. Furthermore, the study concluded that, despite claims that lottery revenues support all education, a disproportionate amount goes to wealthier school districts and programs benefiting college students.
“Poor people are collateral damage to a cause of raising money for what the legislators feel is good purposes—public safety, local schools,” said Gregory W. Sullivan, research director for a Boston think tank and former Massachusetts inspector general, in an interview with the Associated Press.
Among the study’s other findings:
- In neighborhoods with lottery retailers, the percentage of the population that lives in poverty is higher than in neighborhoods without lottery retailers in all 44 states analyzed as well as Washington, D.C.
- The black population was higher in neighborhoods with lottery retailers than in neighborhoods without lottery retailers in 35 states and Washington, D.C.
- The Hispanic population was higher in neighborhoods with lottery retailers than in neighborhoods without lottery retailers in 37 states and Washington, D.C.
