{"id":273166,"date":"2026-06-21T14:19:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T14:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/273166\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T14:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T14:19:14","slug":"new-york-is-overdoing-it-with-a-constant-barrage-of-lottery-ads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/273166\/","title":{"rendered":"New York is overdoing it with a constant barrage of lottery ads"},"content":{"rendered":"

The recent New York state budget negotiations focused on how Gov. Hochul could throw a financial lifeline to New York Mayor Mamdani, as they sought to balance the city budget without reducing it. The headline result was authorization for the \u201cpied-\u00e0-terre\u201d tax on high-value second homes in the city \u2014 which is likely to yield just a few hundred million dollars<\/a> toward the city\u2019s $124\u00a0 billion budget, risking private investors pulling out of the\u00a0 city.<\/p>\n

But what if there were a way to reduce state spending by hundreds of millions\u00a0and, in the process, protect the financial and mental health of New Yorkers? In fact, there is such an option: putting a halt to the nation\u2019s highest level spending on state lottery advertising.<\/p>\n

As the slick new TV \u201cCan You Imagine?\u201d campaign<\/a> \u2014 shot in multiple locations by a prominent filmmaker \u2014 reflects, the state Gaming Commission is on track to spend a stunning $388 million between 2022 and 2027 on just one ad agency media contract<\/a> (McCann New York), having contracted for $434 million for 2020 alone with the same agency.<\/p>\n

The slick new \u201cCan You Imagine?\u201d lottery campaign was shot in multiple locations by a prominent filmmaker. New York Lottery \/ YouTube<\/p>\n

It turns out the lottery is a full\u00a0 employment program for Madison Avenue.<\/p>\n

A mayor who is truly concerned about the poor would be urging the state to stop tempting them with illusion-based ads to spend their money foolishly on what amounts to a regressive tax.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery New York Lottery ticket represents a world of possibility,\u201d asserted New York State Gaming Commission Chair Brian O\u2019Dwyer in rolling out the \u201cCan You Imagine?\u201d campaign. In reality, each ticket. leads to a high probability: that a low-income household will waste its paycheck.<\/p>\n

Per the Tax Foundation,<\/a> the lowest-income taxpayers spend three times as much on lottery tickets as those of higher incomes. As a study based<\/a> on University of Chicago research found, \u201c40 million households are habitual players, mostly in the lowest quartile of household income.\u201d They spend an average of $2,500 a year, spending that \u201coften represents a material fraction of their discretionary income.\u201d<\/p>\n

People do sometimes win big in the lottery \u2014 but the majority of time, people are wasting their money. There is a 1 in 45 million chance of winning the NY Lotto. New York Lottery<\/p>\n

Ad campaigns like \u201cCan You Imagine?\u201d are clearly aimed at just such buyers, with dream-like scenarios of travel that the wealthy can already afford. (For instance, a Neapolitan pizza slice suggests a visual sequence of\u00a0 a trip to Naples.) Keep in mind what\u2019s not advertised: the odds of big payouts are daunting, 1 in 45 million for the NY Lotto and 1 in 302 million for Mega Millions. <\/p>\n

But wouldn\u2019t lottery revenue for the state fall if advertising were reduced? Perhaps not. Massachusetts has the highest per-capital lottery sales in the nation.<\/a> By law, the Bay State caps lottery advertising at $6 million a year. Its residents spend $915 a year on lottery tickets, far more than New York\u2019s $481.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, it might be desirable if both lottery spending and the revenue for the state it generates were reduced. Low-income New Yorkers would be far better off putting the dollars they put down for tickets at one of the hundreds of bodegas selling the tickets into a bank CD \u2014 where they would earn interest, rather than evaporating.<\/p>\n

Putting a halt to the nation\u2019s highest level spending on state lottery advertising could help balance the NYC budget. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Indeed, were state governments not exempt from Federal Trade Commission rules, the lottery ads might well be barred as deceptive.<\/p>\n

Better to warn, through creative public service ads, that the lottery, like DraftKings and the other ubiquitous sports betting sites, are gateway drugs for those who can go on to one of the dangerous gambling habits noted in the small print. The National Council on Problem Gambling<\/a> estimates that 20 million Americans suffer from it.<\/p>\n

The lottery, it\u2019s claimed, provides billions for the state education budget. But as any budgeteer knows, all funding is \u201cfungible\u201d \u2014 the earmarked education budget allows for higher spending in other categories. Less lottery revenue might force the state to tighten its belt for a change.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s estimated that 20 million of Americans have a gambling addiction. TSViPhoto \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Even more broadly, though, there is a moral question. It is one thing for states \u2014 45 of which now have lotteries \u2014 to legalize what was once called a vice. It is another thing altogether to tempt residents to partake in it. New York is spending hundreds of millions to do just that. The state Legislature should call a halt.<\/p>\n

Howard Husock is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of \u201cThe Projects: A New History of Public Housing<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The recent New York state budget negotiations focused on how Gov. Hochul could throw a financial lifeline to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[10429,617,9,24,55,54,56,299],"class_list":["post-273166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-gambling","tag-lottery","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}