When someone wins the lottery, they can choose whether to accept a lump sum or annuity payments. Which option makes the most sense depends on factors like debt, financial goals and your discipline. A financial advisor can help you decide.<\/p>\n
The idea of a prize based on chance has been around for thousands of years. In the 15th century, people in the Low Countries began to hold public lotteries to raise funds for town fortifications and to help the poor. These early lotteries offered tickets with different symbols or numbers that corresponded to potential prizes.<\/p>\n
In the United States, state lotteries started in the immediate post-World War II period when states were looking to expand their array of social safety net services without imposing too many additional taxes on their working and middle classes. New Hampshire was the first to offer a modern state lottery, and other Northeastern states followed.<\/p>\n
But lottery promotions still rely on two messages, both of which obscure the regressivity and scale of these games:<\/p>\n
One message is that winning the lottery is fun. The experience of scratching a ticket and watching the odds climb are supposed to make gambling seem a bit like a game, not something that takes up more of your income than buying a cup of coffee.<\/p>\n
The other message, coded in a series of narratives that feature wealthy winners and dreamers of wealth, plays on fear of missing out – FOMO. When the grand prize number gets higher and higher, it’s all over the news and on billboards, and people worry they won’t be the only ones not playing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When someone wins the lottery, they can choose whether to accept a lump sum or annuity payments. Which option makes the most sense depends on factors like debt, financial goals and your discipline. A financial advisor can help you decide. The idea of a prize based on chance has been around for thousands of years….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n