10/31/2005
Advice from Nashville's leading Financial Aid Advisor Dave Ramsey
Dave Says
By Dave Ramsey
Author of:
Financial Peace and
The Total Money Makeover
"Lottery a wealth-building tool?"
Dear Dave,
I haven’t heard you say much about lotteries. I have some information, most of it negative, and I’d like to know what you think about them.
Jack via email
Dear Jack,
To be honest, the lottery is just stupid. I’ve studied wealth-building for years, what works and what doesn’t work. The lottery is not a method for building wealth. It’s a tax on the poor and on people who can’t do math. If it was a wealth-building tool, you’d see a bunch of rich people standing in line for their tickets. Take a look at the lines for lottery tickets sometime, Jack. The people standing in line are usually those from lower-income zip codes.
Some people will try to defend it and talk about certain states having successful scholarship programs that are largely funded by the lottery. Yeah, that’s true in some cases. But most of those scholarships are given to those in middle- and upper middle-income areas, while they’re funded by people from lower-income areas. So, poor people are sending financially well-off kids to school. It’s a brilliant scheme when you think about it.
There are lots of places to gamble if you’re into that kind of thing. If you want to play the Lotto, play the Lotto. If you want to fly out to Las Vegas and lose your butt, you can do that, too. Personally, I’m not into it. I did go to a convention in Las Vegas once and stayed at this fabulous hotel and casino – the kind where they spent about $75 million just on the lobby. I mean, think about it. SOMEBODY’S not winning, you know? If they can afford to build a palace like that, a LOT of somebody’s aren’t winning!
Wealth building is not rocket science. Find out what rich people are doing, and you’ll see it’s not the Lotto. Gambling in all forms is a false hope.
- Dave
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