ABSTRACT
No government-sponsored lottery existed in the United States 50 years ago. Today 44 lotteries operate in the United States, and in 2011 alone, they generated over $55 billion in revenues (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011). After accounting for prize winnings and administration fees, about $18.4 billion of this money was allotted to public services. Though lotteries are often adopted on the political promise to provide additional funds, in reality they marginally increase the money available for public services (Miller and Pierce, 1997; Pantuosco et al., 2007). In many cases, lottery money simply alters the composition of taxation and supplants other sources of state revenue like corporate, property, and income taxes (Borg and Mason, 1988, 1990). Fiscal policy restructured in this way has the potential to shift the tax obligations of who pays for infrastructure investment that mostly everyone enjoys.
