'US lottery reaches record jackpot'

With the jackpot for the Mega Millions lottery topping half a billion dollars—the largest in history anywhere in the world—Al Jazeera called upon Victor Matheson, associate professor of economics at the College of the Holy Cross, for insight on lottery trends.

Although the odds of winning are only 1 in 176 million, people with lower incomes tend to spend more on tickets, he explained. 

“Typically, the sorts of people who play the lottery are at the very lowest income levels,” said Matheson. “As a matter of fact, people with incomes under $25,000 a year spend about the same amount of money on lottery tickets as those making over $100,000 a year.  So, as a percentage of their income, the poor generally play the lottery a lot more.”



This "Holy Cross in the News" item by Sara Bovat '14.