Actually, the lottery is worse more than is obvious at first blush.  
Consider this:

In our state (USA-Georgia), the lottery proceeds go to college 
scholarships for
students with B or higher grade averages regardless of income/wealth.
More lower income/wealth people tend to buy lottery tickets.
More upper income/wealth people tend to go to college.

So, lower income/wealth people tend to be paying for upper
income/wealth people to go to college.

But wait, I'm not done...

With more people being able to afford to go to college because
of the lottery, the cost of college has gone way up for everyone
 (the immutable law of supply and demand).  And since part of the
colleges costs is borne by the taxpayer, our taxes are going up.

So the lottery is really a "lose-lose" proposition for "poor" people and
taxpayers!!

This is one example of the "Law of Unintended Consequences".

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