The short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson takes place in a rural village where traditions and customs dominate the population. The story reveals human inequity in many ways. It portrays the gullibility of people in putting their fate into the hands of others. It also presents the hypocrisy of the characters in the town.
When the lottery first emerged in the United States, states hoped that it would allow them to expand their array of social services without burdening lower- and middle-class taxpayers with onerous taxes. But the lottery quickly became a dependency on revenues that state governments could not ignore. In fact, many have never stopped running lotteries.
State lottery operations are a classic case of public policy making on the fly. Rather than starting with a broad concept of what the lottery should accomplish, officials begin by defining the types of games that will be offered. Over time, the games are changed and improved to sustain revenues and meet consumer demand.
Lotteries typically expand rapidly upon their introduction, but as a rule their revenues soon level off and sometimes decline. To maintain or increase revenues, new games must be introduced often.
Super-sized jackpots are a key driver of lottery sales, and they earn free publicity on news sites and newscasts. However, such jackpots usually have much smaller odds of winning than advertised and are not paid out in a single lump sum but in annual payments over 20 years (with inflation and taxes dramatically eroding the value). It is not surprising that most state lottery players are middle-class and lower-income; they tend to play the games more frequently, and they spend more per ticket.