the lottery is capturing americans’ imagination just as our money lives go haywire that’s probably not a coincidence says lottery historian jonathan cohen in a time of high inflation it makes sense to think that money can “move around seemingly without any real connection to what’s happening in the real world” he told marketwatch the drawing for a mega millions jackpot of at least 12 billion is on friday the odds this time are worse than one in 300 million still plenty of people are buying more than half of us adults will play in a state lottery this year lotteries are more than just a chance to dream big they’ve been part of the fabric of american society since before the country was founded cohen said in a call on friday hours before the closely anticipated drawing he talked about the reasons so many americans play even when the jackpot isn’t in the 10figure range cohen is a program officer at the american academy of arts and sciences and the author of the new book “for a dollar and a dream state lotteries in modern america” the conversation that follows has been edited for clarity and space marketwatch what should someone who is about to buy a ticket know about the history of the lottery jonathan cohen the lottery you are supporting was probably enacted with a very specific purpose in mind in many southern states it supported prekindergarten programs and college scholarship programs in pennsylvania it’s eldercare programs in other states it’s the general education budget those state lotteries were created for the purpose of supporting those funds but i would also say just so you know don’t think you’re playing out of altruistic benefit because the ultimate benefit to states from lotteries has been much lower than initially imagined why do people play even though they almost certainly won’t win some of it is the same as what it was in the 1700s the phenomenon and the hope of making money maybe even lifechanging money through chance has been a way of american life and culture since before the founding of the country what has changed is the size of the jackpot today that has changed perceptions of what the lottery means as the rich are getting richer the jackpots are getting bigger they give you a chance to enter the increasingly exclusive enclaves of the very rich lotteries have some wellpublicized downsides are they doing more harm than good right now i think the lottery probably does more harm than good overall today just because of the number of lowerincome nonwhite lesseducated people who spend significant amounts of money playing it warps our beliefs about how easy it is to get rich and our beliefs about how fair economic mobility is those are negatives we need to weigh against the very clear concrete benefits that lotteries have produced for students taxpayers politicians fifty to 60 years ago it was probably doing more good than harm but at some point along the way that shifted what does the current jackpot mean for this particular economic moment the financial insecurity and instability that a lot of people are experiencing because of inflation would certainly be a driver of lottery popularity it’s easy to reason that if money is made up and just changes values all the time seemingly of its own accord why couldn’t i defy the odds and hit a billiondollar jackpot i’m sort of joking but that’s actually an ethos that helped the popularity of lotteries in the 1980s with the rise of wall street money seems to magically change hands without anyone doing work so why not get a piece of it myself so i think gas prices and inflation increase the need for people to have hope elsewhere and inflation contributes to the idea that money just can change hands and move around seemingly without any real connection to what’s happening in the real world i have not bought one for tonight’s drawing though i might do so today i very infrequently buy tickets usually only in situations like this where it’s causing mania but despite seven years of writing a book about lotteries i’m not immune to fantasies and hopes about a jackpot i hope that says a lot about how widespread these hopes can be among people who buy tickets regularly and also those who like me don’t