State lotteries transfer wealth out of needy communities

WARREN, Mich. — While the growing expansion of casinos and state-sanctioned sports betting steal the spotlight, state lotteries have nearly doubled in size over the past two decades, driving a multibillion-dollar wealth transfer from low-income U.S. communities to powerful multinational companies. A nationwide investigation of state lotteries by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland found that lottery retailers are disproportionately clustered in lower-income communities in nearly every state. The center’s analysis found: — In neighborhoods with lottery retailers, the percentage of the population that lives in poverty is higher than in neighborhoods without lottery retailers in all 44 states analyzed and in Washington, D.C. — The Black population was higher in neighborhoods with lottery retailers than in neighborhoods without lottery retailers in 35 states and Washington, D.C. — The Hispanic population was higher in neighborhoods with lottery retailers than in neighborhoods without lottery retailers in 37 states and Washington, D.C. Neighborhoods with a lottery retailer in Michigan have a median poverty rate nearly double the rate in neighborhoods without lottery retailers, the center’s analysis found. In 29 of 44 states it analyzed and in Washington, D.C., the Howard Center found a similar divide, where the average household income of neighborhoods that visited lottery retailers was lower than the state’s overall average income.