Dr. J. Emmett Henderson, head of Georgia Council on Moral and Civic Concerns, says, "For the poor, the lottery is not harmless entertainment. It is a desperate attempt to survive. But the odds of winning are so cruel that the lottery turns out to be theft by consent."

• In Maryland – Almost half (47 percent) of the state’s heavy gamblers come from households earning less than $20,000 a year. An almost equal number (48 percent) have a high school diploma or less.

• In Massachusetts – Individuals in the poorer cities of Worcester and Chelsea spent an average of $336 and $445, respectively, on lottery tickets in the early 1990s. Individuals in wealthier towns such as Weston and Amherst, on the other hand, spent an average of $30 and $42, respectively.

• In Virginia – Forty percent of heavy gamblers (people who spend more than $1,200 a year) have household incomes of less than $25,000. Another 17 percent of "heavy" players have annual incomes of less than $15,000.

• In Kentucky – A 1994 Associated Press report said people making less than $15,000 spent more money on gambling than people making more than $35,000 a year.

• In Texas – A University of Texas study found that players with a high school diploma or less spent more than $250 a year on the lottery. The average Texan spent $197 a year.

• In Michigan – A 1994 study in Detroit found that people with less than a high school diploma spend over five times more as a percentage of their income than those people who have a college degree do.

• In Wisconsin – A 1995 study of casino gamblers found that half had household incomes below $30,000.

• In New Mexico – In 1996, three of the poorest counties ranked among the top-10 best-selling counties for lottery tickets.

• In California – Four out of every 10 gamblers in California are unemployed.

• A 1997 study in Maryland found that 61 percent of people who spend more than $10 a week on gambling were African Americans, yet, African Americans make up only 26 percent of Maryland’s population.

• An Illinois study found that while African-Americans comprised 11 percent of the state’s population, they accounted for 17 percent of lottery-ticket sales.

• Hispanics are twice as likely as whites to bet at least $5.00 a week, according to the Los Angeles Times.

• An Arizona study found that 28 percent of Hispanics gambled compared to only nine percent of whites.

• In Virginia, the Washington Post reported that as the spending level of gambling increases, the percentage of African Americans gambling sharply increases. African Americans in Virginia make up the majority of players who spend more than $2,000 a year on the lottery.

• The Georgia Department of Human Resources has found that while minorities make up 26 percent of Georgia’s population, 48 percent of all problem or pathological gamblers in the state are non-white.

Senior Adults

• In 1997, one study showed that more than 60 percent of senior citizens (age 65 and up) had gambled in the past year. That number was up from 50 percent in 1995.

• In Maryland, the advertising industry has targeted senior citizens as potential gamblers. That state has gone so far as to introduce a "Lottery on Wheels" campaign where gambling machines are actually taken to the seniors so they can play. The campaign was pulled when the AARP asked Maryland’s attorney general to investigate.

• According to Pat Fowler, executive director for the Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling, seniors are particularly vulnerable to the lure of gambling for several reasons:

1. Their retirement is steady.

2. They have a lot of free time.

• In terms of those people calling for help, senior citizens are the fastest growing group of problem gamblers. In 1997 Minnesota, saw an increase of 200 percent in problem gamblers over a five-year period. Of the senior-citizen problem gamblers in Florida in 1995, 72 percent said the source of their problem was the lottery.

• The spread of legalized gambling across the nation has led to an increase in the number of senior citizens who are facing financial ruin because of gambling addictions. Seniors live on a fixed income and are often financially crushed by the time they realize they need help. "It’s a very, very hidden problem among the older age group. They are taking risks they’ve probably never taken in their entire lives," said Dennis McNeilly, a clinical psychologist in Nebraska. Alabama recruits seniors to the Gulf Coast. Do we want to place this burden on them?

Compulsive Gamblers

The lottery entices people, especially youth, into compulsive behavior.

• According to the Georgia DHR, there are at least 8,400 Georgia adolescents who are addicted to gambling. Another 39,000 are at risk of becoming problem gamblers.

• Even though legalized gambling has only been in Georgia since 1993, the Georgia DHR estimates that 2.3 percent of the state’s adult population could be classified as problem gamblers, at a cost to the state of $221 million a year.