European lotteries are the tax on fools.

“I guess I think of lotteries as a tax on the mathematically challenged.”

— Roger Jones

I have never played the lottery in my life and never will. Voltaire described lotteries as a tax on stupidity. More specifically, I think,…

— Daniel Tammet

Lotteries, a tax upon imbeciles.

— Anonymous

Lotteries boost state revenues in the short run but don't feed the economy in the long run

— John Warren Kindt

That the chance of gain is naturally over-valued, we may learn from the universal success of lotteries.

— Adam Smith

There are no races. Only lotteries.

— Jacques Anquetil

There is no moral difference between gambling at cards or in lotteries or on the race track and gambling in the stock market. One…

— Theodore Roosevelt

“The system was elementary, as you can see. Naturally these "lotteries" failed. Their moral virtue was nil. They were not directed at all of…

— Jorge Luis Borges

“Public lotteries are essentially regressive taxes imposed on the poor.”

— Eric Schlosser

“There are many stories and accounts about the winners of lotteries who are jubilant when they win, but whose lives descend into a nightmare…

— Anonymous

Lotteries are just one way to provide positive reinforcement. Their power comes from the fact that the chance of winning the prize is overvalued.

— Richard Thaler

“Lotteries are how the rich steal from the poor!”

— Steven Magee

All too often, lotteries only add to the problem of the financially disadvantaged by taking money from them and giving nothing of value in…

— Joseph B. Wirthlin

Why do people play the lottery, or why do people gamble, period? You know, it's with the hope of winning something more.

— Derek Kilmer

A lottery is a salutary instrument and a tax... laid on the willing only, that is to say, on those who can risk the…

— Thomas Jefferson