Why don't we have a federal national lottery in the US?

Reply #23

Kingofearth — Mon, 09 May 2016 04:03:38 GMT

States without Powerball or Mega millions:

Alabama: 1.51% of the US population

Utah: 0.93% of the US population

Mississippi: 0.93% of the population

Nevada: 0.90% of the population

Hawaii: 0.45% of the population

Alaska: 0.23% of the population

Results via Wikipedia

You could make the case that a national lottery would be big enough to come anywhere close if a 1.5 Billion jackpot was created using only a handful of small states but in the real world, the impact of addin... [ More ]

Reply #22

grwurston — Mon, 09 May 2016 00:17:34 GMT

There would be no deficit if every one paid their fair share of federal income taxes. 45.3%, (Approx. 77 million) households paid no federal income tax last year.

Nobody likes paying taxes, but if everybody pitched in, it would lessen the burden for everyone.

Reply #21

pickone4me — Sun, 08 May 2016 21:59:20 GMT

The feds screw up everything. No one would win, as it would be rigged more than it is already. It would make more sense to cut funding to other countries, and the UN and all that greenie agenda foolishness, that would save quite a bit.

Reply #20

myturn — Sat, 30 Apr 2016 21:57:59 GMT

America has a 'National Lottery', but it is not run from Washington. The Massachusetts lottery has a subscription service which is available across the United States by phone. You can subscribe to Megabucks Doubler for $100 a year. As you can subscribe from any state or territory, is is a 'National Lottery'.

Reply #19

psykomo — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 21:12:55 GMT

Remember LIBG:

IT is all FREE tickets prizes for players 90% collected tax would go to the foreign countries to payback P I.

Aunt that America

Reply #18

LiveInGreenBay — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 20:38:29 GMT

Tax at 90%?!?!?? OMG NO

Reply #17

psykomo — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 19:15:12 GMT

The 666 National Lottery

LIGB:

Psyko has a better formula for a National Lottery... a true National Lottery should be THE PEOPLES lottery, it should be democratic republican

(1) Jackpot should start at SIX MILLION $$ Dollars and remain at six million and repeat a SIX MILLION jackpot after each winning number DRAWN

(2) Matrix 1:60 with 6 ball to pick from sixty balls

(3) One drawing per month, 12 drawings per year

(4) 6 Free play tickets issued 2 all over 18 each year

(5) OB... [ More ]

Reply #16

LiveInGreenBay — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 17:52:44 GMT

Well...The jackpot would start at a billion dollars. You'd need 6 numbers out of 1,500 plus 1 number out of 500. Each ticket would cost $10.00 for 1 set of numbers.

Reply #15

MaximumMillions — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 12:31:59 GMT

Right, it was just one recent example of how and how quickly that debt was built. And when the lottery would have to run for more than 100 years to make a dent in the debt which can be cancelled out within less than a decade, that won't work. But extra revenue is always a good thing and it might be an attractive game nonetheless. It just won't wipe out the debt completely.

Edit: While we're at it, how would your debt lottery look, what formula would it have

Reply #14

Stack47 — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 00:03:29 GMT

Just the other day I said it wouldn't be long before politics began appearing in lottery topics this election cycle.

For the record the total U.S. lottery sales is about $70 billion a year and about 40% of that is returned to the players. If your National Lottery matched those figures, you'll get about $42 billion or 0.2% to contribution to the deficit.

Reply #13

rcbbuckeye — Thu, 28 Apr 2016 23:59:01 GMT

Yeah.

Think I'm in on the 104 chances for MM and 104 chances for PB, and 104 chances for Texas Lotto, AND 104 chances for Texas 2 Step.

That adds up to 416 shots.

Not to mention the other games such as All or Nothing, Pick 4, Cash 5, and scratchers.

Reply #12

Stack47 — Thu, 28 Apr 2016 23:43:45 GMT

Several LP members say they get at least one ticket for every PB and MM drawings which is four times the amount Spaniards spend on one drawing. In 2014 U.S. players spent an equivalent of 3.6 billion euros just playing PB. I guess it depends on if the majority of players want to have 108 chances a year of winning a life changing jackpot or just one chance.

That's the real no-brainer.

Reply #11

myturn — Thu, 28 Apr 2016 20:50:10 GMT

Washington should copy El Gordo, the 'Fat One', lottery in Spain. It is Spain s annual Christmas lottery. It raises billions in Spain, a similar Christmas lottery in the US, could raise much more.

It has been estimated that 75 per cent of adult Spaniards play the Christmas lottery and the state company which organises The Fat One reckons that this year each Spaniard will spend an average of 62.72 on tickets, with the amount of tickets on sale reaching a value of 3.2 billion.

Reply #10

LiveInGreenBay — Thu, 28 Apr 2016 20:34:18 GMT

Hey Max, not get too far off subject but...Reagan had to rebuild the military decimated by Carter. On the other hand, obama doubled the debt for no reason at all. What good did the stimulus do? Not a thing for anyone other than political friends and failed green projects run by democrat donors.

Yea, maybe its not a good idea for the federal government to have a national lottery. They just seem to screw things up.

Reply #9

MaximumMillions — Thu, 28 Apr 2016 19:02:10 GMT

At 70B$ a year that would take some loooong time to cancel out the debt. And seeing how for example Reagan tripled debt in 8 years, any progress could be wiped out by a few unforeseen events or poor choices by Washington.

Reply #8

Raven62 — Thu, 28 Apr 2016 15:28:34 GMT

Approximately 4,043,978 people turn 18 each year.

Reply #7

haymaker — Thu, 28 Apr 2016 15:20:56 GMT

They already collect 40% of every win, without doing anything for it.

If they cared about the national debt they could stop giving money to countries that hate us.

Reply #6

KY Floyd — Thu, 28 Apr 2016 05:48:45 GMT

Let's imagine that the number of people who could play PB increased by 5%. How much bigger do you suppose the jackpots would get, and how fast would it happen, based on the possible odds

Reply #5

Stack47 — Thu, 28 Apr 2016 01:08:02 GMT

Considering the problems many of the states had with opposition in creating state lotteries and today's political climate, it's doubtful we'll see a National Lottery any time soon. Lots of those states created an illusion a lottery could solve educational and other problems and saying a National lottery could even put a dent into the deficit is much bigger illusion.

But who knows, it could happen.

Reply #4

Coin Toss — Wed, 27 Apr 2016 23:50:48 GMT

Not likely to happen as long as there are still states with no lottery.

Reply #3

bigbear29 — Wed, 27 Apr 2016 22:18:08 GMT

Would that be a government run lottery? If so, I don't think many people would play it.

Reply #2

LiveInGreenBay — Wed, 27 Apr 2016 20:32:52 GMT

Thanks buddy but Trump has MY vote.

Reply #1

bigmon — Wed, 27 Apr 2016 20:31:27 GMT

Wow great idea. You should run for office. You have my vote.

Why don't we have a federal national lottery in the US?

LiveInGreenBay — Wed, 27 Apr 2016 20:27:24 GMT

Seems like a no-brainer. Have a national lottery where the proceeds are used 100% to pay down the national debt which is approaching 20 trillion dollars? The jackpot would make powerball look like pick 3.