The official lottery offers fun, convenience and information to players on the go. To get started, enter your mobile number or text APP to 66835 (Msg & data rates may apply). Then you can download the app and start playing all of the latest games! Create and save ePlayslips. View prizes remaining and game details. Instantly scan Scratch-Offs and Draw Games tickets to see if you are a winner. And enter your non-winning tickets into Second-Chance Drawings.
Lotteries were initially conceived as a way for states to expand their social safety nets without burdening their middle and working classes with especially onerous taxes. And in the immediate postwar period, that arrangement probably did work, Cohen argues.
But soon after, state officials began looking for ways to swell lottery jackpots and attract more gamblers. Super-sized jackpots also give the games a windfall of free publicity on news sites and in newscasts, which helps drive sales.
But a growing number of voters began to object. They worried that state-run gambling would primarily attract black numbers players, who might then foot the bill for services that white voters didn’t want to pay for, like better schools in urban areas they had recently fled. And they feared that the games might be used to lure people into shady financial deals and other schemes.