"All you need is a dollar and a dream." The dream was to win the New York lottery jackpot of 45 million dollars. A dollar bought a shot at winning. Yes, lottery fever, the dreamers came by the millions. Standing in line to buy their tickets, they chatted about yachts and mink coats and mansions-things they would buy if they won the prize money. At one point, throughout the state, they snapped up tickets at the rate of 28,000 per minute. In the final three days before the drawing, they bought 37.4 million tickets.
In Japan business is always brisk at the 10,000 authorized lottery booths were people flock to buy tickets for the Year-End Jumbo lottery. At one Tokyo booth where five first-prize tickets had reportedly been sold in previous years, about 300 people were already standing in line when the booth opened for business. One young woman, who believed that luck favors the early bird, had been waiting since 1:00 a.m. The coveted jackpot last year: a record 100 million yen ($714,285, U.S.).
In a West African capital, what the locals call the 'Lotto College ' area is always crowded with people who have come to buy tickets and to speculate on future numbers.Long lists of past winning numbers are sold to those who hope to find in them some clue to future combinations. For those with faith in mystic knowledge, lotto prophets are on hand to prophesy, for a fee, numbers to bet on.
Isolated occurrences? By no means. Lottery fever is pandemic. It inflames every continent. It burns in rich countries and poor. It excites young and old at every
economic, social, and educational level society.
Yes, lotteries are big business, and business is booming. In the United States alone, State lotteries took in $18.5 thousand million in 1989. Only 27 years ago, that figure was zero. But now lotteries are the second-largest form of gambling in the United States, and the industry is growing by 17.5 percent every year, as fast as the computer industry.
Worldwide lottery sales in 1988, according to the latest figures available from the magazine 'Gaming and Wagering Business,' totaled $56.38 thousand million, an enormous figure. That amounts to more than ten dollars for every man, woman, and child on earth! And that's in just one year!
While no one can deny that lotteries are prospering, many argue strongly against them. The next two articles at the bottom examines the growing popularity of lotteries and the controversy behind them. As you consider the facts, you will be able to decide whether lotteries are for you. Is it smart to play? How easy is it to win? Can you lose more than money?
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