ABSTRACT
The name shortened to “Lotto,” at the end of 1988, twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia had legalized participation in lotteries. In the same year, Massachusetts residents on average spent $235 for lottery tickets; this marked a high, in Kansas the amount spent was only $27. A research psychologist, Dr. Srully Blotnick, investigated the phenomenon of lotteries and discovered that they are most popular with low-income people who seek celebrity status. A shipping clerk told him: “If I win, I want all that lights, camera, action stuff. I want everyone to see that I didn’t become a bum after all.” Other findings revealed that 37% of the players felt guilty about buying lottery tickets, and 43% would not play regularly if they had to give their name and social security number. Also part of the need for secrecy, many players did not tell their families about their purchase, and mistakenly believed that silence protected them from the eagle eye of the Internal Revenue Service if they won. The big payoff of many millions of dollars is the driving force although a bigger payoff means less of a chance to win because more tickets are in circulation. This fact fails to register on players; a 1–40 million-dollar payoff is just too tantalizing a prospect not to get involved. To underscore Dr. Blotnick's research, a recent California Lotto winner happened to be an illegal alien who truly realized the American dream overnight, not speaking English well and having been here only a brief time. That certainly made for instant celebrity.
