Anyone else have mixed feelings upon learning about the down-on-his luck, South Dakota cowboy who won that $232-million lottery jackpot? Everybody loves an old-fashioned, rags-to-riches tale, and 23-year-old Neal Wanless seems like a nice enough guy. Good for him and his family.
But what was a guy in serious debt doing — spending $15 on lottery tickets? And isn’t his highly trumpeted windfall a marketing coup for lotteries everywhere? And won’t that further fuel the long-shot hopes of everyone who can’t afford to gamble — a demographic obscenely over-represented in lottery players. Sure, Wanless beat the odds because someone has to. But the fact remains that the longest-of-long-shot chances of hitting such a lottery are about the same – whether you play or not.