Ethical State Lottery

1299 Words3 Pages

The Case of the state Lottery is in essence about whether or not its actions and existence can be ethically justified. The case made is the benefit of state funding projects, individual happiness ( from playing/winning) against the negative outcomes and influences the Lottery has on society and the individual.

The utilitarian monster
The lottery is an institution which is all about money. People play to win big, but often loose and the Lottery is always the winner because it always earns more money than it loses.

“the Official California Lottery Financial Report, of the total $59.25 billion the lottery took in from people buying tickets, about $30.54 billion was given back in prizes”(Chen, Yang, & Chen, 2010).

When the Lottery is more …show more content…

So, as a governmental agency, one might assume that its goal is to gain utility ( money) in order to fund state expenses.

The problem is that the people who buy lottery tickets are so plentiful and the gain of the Lottery so enormous. This gain is used to fund the state. Sometimes through projects that target the poor, the middle class or evenly distributed. However the Lottery is setup, it takes a lot of money and does not give back evenly distributed.

‘’the poorest members of society tend to spend (and, by design lose) the most on lottery tickets.’’ ("Case Studies", 2012).

This is where the monster part comes in.

The Lottery gains through selling tickets a massive amount of utility (money/pleasure). Much more than one person who buys a lottery …show more content…

B., & Otekunrin, O. A. (2014, July 2). On the Performance of Lottery Winning Strategies: A Case Study of Oyo State Lottery, Nigeria. Retrieved from

http://www.journalrepository.org/media/journals/BJMCS_6/2014/Jul/Oyeleke4172014BJMCS11432_1.pdf

Palma, M. (2015, March 17). Types of Hedonism by Margaret Palma on Prezi. Retrieved from https://prezi.com/xgiranhoyalo/types-of-hedonism/

Rosenfeld, S. (2013, April 15). 10 reasons state lotteries ruin the economy - Salon.com. Retrieved from http://www.salon.com/2013/04/15/10_reasons_state_lotteries_ruin_the_economy_partner/

Utility monster - Conservapedia. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.conservapedia.com/Utility_monster

"Versions of Utilitarian Happiness", section 3 from the book Business Ethics (v. 1.0). (2012, December 29). Retrieved from https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/business-ethics/s07-theories-of-consequence-ethics.html

Weijers, D. (n.d.). Hedonism | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from http://www.iep.utm.edu/hedonism/

“Case Studies”, section 3.5 from the book Business Ethics (v. 1.0). (2012, December 29). Retrieved from

Show More
Related

  • Comparing The Pedestrian And The Lottery

    775 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the reader is introduced to a utopian community who practice the tradition of a lottery every year. At first glance, it seems like a nice day and the kids are just collecting rocks while waiting for their parents to arrive. All of the citizens show some excitement over the upcoming the lottery. The text states,

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis of the Arguements Presented in Against the Odds, and Against the Common Good by Gloria Jiménez

    784 Words  | 2 Pages

    After stating the purpose and revealing the audience, the author presents five opposing viewpoints that will make the chief arguments in the essay. The viewpoints she includes are in favor of state-run lotteries. Out of the fiv...

    Read More

  • Analysis of Against the Odds and Against the Common Good

    1742 Words  | 4 Pages

    The following two paragraphs are a summary of Gloria Jimenez's essay Against the Odds and Against the Common Good. States should neither allow nor encourage state-run lotteries. There are five major arguments that people use to defend lotteries. One is that most lotteries are run honestly, but if gambling is harmful to society it is irrelevant to argue if they are honest or not. The second is that lotteries create jobs, but there are only a small handful of jobs that would be eliminated if lotteries were put out of business. Another argument that would support keeping lotteries is that, other than gambling addicts, people freely choose to buy lottery tickets. This is true, however, there are misleading advertisements that may cause people to buy tickets under false pretenses.

    Read More

  • Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    906 Words  | 2 Pages

    The theme in “The Lottery” is violence and cruelty. Violence and cruelty is a major theme because there is a lot of violence and cruelty in the world. The Lottery has been read as addressing such issues as the public's fascination with salacious and scandalizing journalism, McCarthyism, and the complicity of the general public in the victimization of minority groups, epitomized by the Holocaust of World War II. The Holocaust was very cruel and violent cause other people didn’t like certain people so they just kill them and their children and still now we have violence and cruelty with wars and people that hate each other.

    Read More

  • Symbolism, And Imagery In The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

    723 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The Lottery” is a story written by Shirley Jackson. By looking at the title you may think about money prize. In this story takes the readers expectation to another level. By the two words of the title there is no way the reader did not get hook to reading this story. In “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson, uses symbolism, irony, and imagery.

    Read More

  • The Lottery

    1019 Words  | 3 Pages

    “The Lottery” was quite disturbing to read. It is an very unusual story that has an ending that will have you baffled. You will want to reread certain parts to see if there is anything thing that you could have missed. The title of the short story is also misleading. In most cases the lottery is a good thing. People don’t win punishment and lotteries don’t hurt them. But in this story it does just that. The author did a great job of telling how anyone and everyone can follow tradition blindly. It is dangerous not to have a mind of your own and to just follow the crowd even if you don’t understand on agree on why something is happening.

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Gambling

    730 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lottery companies emphasize that their money goes toward public education. In some cases this is true ,in Tennessee we have The Hope Scholarship and the two year promise which is funded from the lottery. Nearly two thirds of lottery money is set aside from prized. About five percent is used to pay for salaries and advertising. Then what 's left is used to pay for the prizes. The rest goes to the states to use. However based the 2012 study the biggest portion of lottery money goes toward prizes instead of public education which is against what the lottery companies stated. Also the online gambling site “Bet365” received a 2.75 million dollar penalty. They were guilty of luring new users with false free bet offers. The free bets offers was als attached with other unfair conditions. Players had to first gambling three times the value of their deposit and bonus within ninety days before withdrawing any winnings. They have drawn in over 73,000 players with this false advertising. Also Fanduel is misleading and they do not fulfill their promises. FanDuel is reportedly months behind on paying their users.They are trying to reach an agreement with New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman for false advertising. Last year FanDuel spent millions of dollars on ads promising to pay users. However, it was reported that ninety four percent of people lost their money and only one percent of the users took home almost all of the money

    Read More

  • The Lottery System Should Be Required To Offer Financial Literacy

    871 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to Don McNay, a financial advisor who has several lottery-winning clients, approximately 90 percent of lottery winners blow the money they’ve won within 5 years (Morrison). This often leads to lottery winners filing for bankruptcy. The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards reports that approximately 1 in 3 lottery winners will declare bankruptcy, making them in a worse place than they were before winning the lottery (Edelman). Worse yet, more lottery winners have gotten divorced, become estranged from loved ones, been depressed, abused alcohol/drugs, and committed suicide at a higher rate than the average American (Edelman). Clearly, lottery winners are not happy, despite winning a massive amount of money.

    Read More

  • Should State Lottery Be Abolished

    1210 Words  | 3 Pages

    Well that is exactly what the state lottery can do! “State lotteries offer inexpensive forms of amusement.” (Nevada Legislative Counsel Bureau Research Division. State Lotteries pg 8) most lottery tickets are not very expensive, and a person does not have to be part of the highest class of wealth to purchase a ticket. A lot of the lottery money has helped fund many schools in more than one state.

    Read More

  • How Does The Lottery Affect The Average Person

    828 Words  | 2 Pages

    The amount of money spent might also affect the winner. This, of course, depends on the lottery and the area. Third, out of every person playing, the odds can reach “up to 1 in 80 million” in large jackpots (“State Lotteries Prey on the Poor”). These odds stay the same no matter how many tickets a person buys because the number of tickets does not change, while the number of people who buy the tickets do. There is an extreme disadvantage to the everyday person in

    Read More

  • Is The Lottery Good Or Bad

    842 Words  | 2 Pages

    With such low payouts, tickets act as an implicit tax of 38 percent…(“How Lotteries are Bad”)” (www.thinkprogress.org) Therefore, playing in the lottery cannot be a positive act in society because of how much damage it causes. If the game of gambling was a truly palatable behavior there wouldn’t be so many chaotic consequences after people play it.

    Read More

  • Psychological Effects Of Winning The Lottery

    458 Words  | 1 Pages

    To the casual eye of most, winning the lottery is an ongoing fantasy for many. To envision the idea that in a sudden moment you could be an instant millionaire, a risk that many are willing to take. Statistics have shown that the chances of someone winning is 1 in 175 million. Although, winning the lottery is not likely for those who do win are they really that much better off ("What Are Your Odds")? For most people it’s the possibility of winning big that has brought continual hope throughout the years for a better future (Smith, Jacque Wilson).

    Read More

  • Why Is The Lottery Bad

    615 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Good and Bad of the Lottery Having a competitiveness is good because people like challenges. People compete and complete till they win. People compete for sports jobs any many more. Gambling is a good way to compete. Lotteries are not an ethical and effective way to raise state revenues for education because most money from the lottery doesn’t go to its designated place ,minors play the lottery, and those who play the lottery are typically low income.

    Read More

  • Negative Effects Of Winning The Lottery

    746 Words  | 2 Pages

    Although this seems like a blessing, spending money in an excess fashion on expensive goods can also contribute to the downfall of most lottery winners. In a recent study by the Camelot Group it was found that, “44% of those who have ever won large lottery prizes were broke within five years” (Edelman, 2016, para. 4). For example, in 2013 a woman by the name of Sharon Tirabassi won the lottery of worth more than $10,000,00 however, she would soon find out that her money would soon be gone. “Today, after spending almost all her winnings – ‘big house, fancy cars, designer clothes, lavish parties, exotic trips, handouts to family, loans to friends’ -- she's back in the working class: riding the bus, working part-time, living in a rented house” (Murphy, 2013, para. 3). Despite the large sum of money Sharon won, the carelessness in spending put her in a position to lose almost everything she won from the lottery.

    Read More

  • Public School Skew

    862 Words  | 2 Pages

    People buy tickets and the proceeds go into a pool, that is a relatively set amount. When a ticket has the matching numbers to win, the lotto companie pays out the amount designated to the owner of the ticket. Then the unforgiving rain of taxes and deductions begins, First the government takes its share then the state takes its cut, then it depends on how the person wishes to receive the money that is left, if the winner decides to take a lump sum, Jared Walczak, a senior policy analyst, claims that so called winner is looking they are looking at around $506 million (Walczak). That is not a small amount, until it is taken into consideration that that would be the money received with an initial payout of $1.8 Billion. That is at around one-third of what was promised. The winner is also looking at a really fun time with the IRS. So then on top of this, before the IRS, there would be even more taken out of this already ransacked amount that the winner was to initially receive to support the local schools, the winner is looking at their jackpot shrinking

    Read More

More about Ethical State Lottery

Open Document