I prefer "uninformed" because the vast majority of the tickets are bought by people with low income, so it's even sadder. In PA at least it goes towards services for the elderly.
That's what your state government may be telling you. Here in Illinois, when the state lottery was enacted, we were told it was going to support public education. At first it was, but soon, the General Assembly diverted the lottery funds into the general fund. In today's budget crises, my bet is lottery earnings are paying whatever the state wants to use it for, not for the altruistic purposes it may have started out as.
