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The Lottery: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

LastWeekTonight · 16M views · 2014-11-10 · 14:36

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Overview

John Oliver's Last Week Tonight segment on state lotteries. It argues that the claim that lotteries fund education is misleading, because the money is fungible and often diverted to general funds.

On Hacker News

Go-to reference in lottery threads for the point that earmarked lottery revenue does not really add to school funding.

Recommended by 6 HN people across 6 months · HN mentions 2014–2023

Topics

Media, journalism & propagandaMicroeconomics & behavioral economicsSatire & parody
Search by tags
lotteryjohn oliverpublic fundingeducation fundingregressive tax

What people said

kkielhofner · 2023-03 · Recommendation

The old saying "money is the root of all evil" often does generally apply and lotteries are an excellent example of state-sponsored financial ruin. I especially like the John Oliver pieces[0][1] on that one. I see it everyday - video poker "cafes" and here in Wisconsin the cultural acceptance and actual embrace of weird things like "pull tabs" and "dice games". Las Vegas is an entire city that has been built on financial ruin. But we can simultaneously criticize, express concern, and work towards fixing multiple issues at the same time. [0] - [VIDEO] [1] - [LINK]

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edgartaor · 2017-08 · Recommendation

>some states they claim to use lottery proceeding to improve math education About that, this video is worth watching. No that is 100% true, but good enough to start a conversation. [VIDEO]

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studentrob · 2015-10 · Recommendation

In some domains, even restricted funds are fungible. Check out John Oliver's video on state lotteries: [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by LastWeekTonight, played through YouTube.

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