Is it not grotesque to give a random person 1.2 billion dollars in a lottery?

Not really.

The lottery is paid for by those who all have an equal chance of winning that prize. Also, the profits from lotteries are usually spent on social funds etc.

I feel more conflicted about thr fact that it preys on addiction and those who buy the most lottery tickets are often those who can least afford them. I find that much more grotesque than a random person getting very lucky, but to each their own.

Half would go to the government no?
- In the US, close to half of the winnings do go to the lottery, plus a portion of each lottery ticket usually goes to fund some government agency. Schools, programs for the impoverished and disenfranchised, etc.
  The real question, in my opinion, is if you are willing to spend that much money on a ticket, why aren't you willing to spend that much money on just outright funding government programs? Imagine if 100% of what someone paid for a ticket went to programs for the disenfranchised? That could make real difference.
- That depends on the government in question. For example, the Canadian government does not have a claim on any kind of lottery or game show winnings.
Lottery > Casinos for sure

It’s grotesque for ANYONE to have a billion dollars. Arguably the lottery winner is the only one to achieve that wealth by even sort-of ethical means.

By that measure, playing the stock exchange is just an advanced version of lottery.
- It is
- My guess you never heard of stock manipulation.
- It is, except for the way that money is derived from the labour of the workers, and the fact that you're not likely to make lifestyle changing amounts of money without already having a significant amount of money to gamble in the first place.
  Not to mention the system is arguably much more "rigged" thanks to the major players in the scene, when you buy a lottery ticket you aren't competing against giant corporations that spend millions on figuring out the best way to buy lottery tickets.
- Well it's like a lottery but with more variables and where better knowledge or analysis can mean some "players"are more likely to win than others. It's inherently less fair than a lottery, which should be totally random.
there are people who have over a billion dollars worth of positive impact on the world.
- That's not grotesque and that's not wealth. But still a nice thought to keep in mind.
  I wish these people were as famous as the loud-ass billionaires we have.
- There certainly have been such people. But none were ever billionaires. Such people do something which creates great value. Billionaires are parasites who do nothing but siphon value away from society.
  Albert Einstein, Nikolai Vavilov, Marie Curie, Martin Luther King Jr, Alan Turing, Abraham Lincoln, Michael Faraday, Nelson Mandela, Isaac Newton, Edward Jenner, Harriet Tubman, Louis Pasteur, etc.

State lotteries are in effect a tax on the uneducated; largely used to fund education.

But part of the reason they exist is that, in their absence, people spontaneously come up with even worse forms of gambling, like the old numbers game that funds the expansion of organized crime.

Most lottery players, especially scratch-ticket players, would be better off sticking that money under their mattresses or in credit-union accounts. However, again, when there are no gambling games around, people spontaneously invent them; abolishing state lotteries would not cause that money to go under mattresses or into credit unions.

largely used to fund education
Alas, nope.
Many states have laws saying that for every lottery dollar that goes to education, a dollar comes out of the education budget. Usually lottery profits end up in a general fund, the whole education thing is a legislated smoke screen.
The main function of state run lotteries is to take money away from organized criminals and give it to elected criminals instead.
- That's incredible if true
Out of curiosity: What is considered illegal gambling?
- Gambling that is prohibited by local laws.
  Each state has its own restrictions and laws so really it depends on your location.
- When the government doesn't control it.
- Any gambling that isn’t regularly audited and controlled by the state. I work in the casino industry, I have sets of reports and evidence I have to run and provide to the state daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually. Then every two years they get a room in our building to full audit everything again end comb through everything we do to make sure we comply with all of the hundreds of controls across the 25 chapters in our gaming control book. Anything not subjected to and complying with that is illegal.

Wait til you find out about inheritance

It is a deep and philosophical question that must be looked at from all sides. But after much debate and consideration among our greatest scholars the universal truth is a question in of itself. Am I the random person?

if you buy a ticket, you just might be !

If someone inherits a billion dollar, how is that not just given to a random person?

If their family is that rich, they usually have gotten some money of it before the other died.
Chances are the person who inherits a billion dollars is already used to dealing with large amounts of money, and likely has the support structure of accountants and advisors that will help them deal with it.
A lottery winner is usually middle-class or lower, the type of person whose life would be changed by a few thousand dollars, and likely has no idea how to manage wealth of that size.

It's not as grotesque as the mundane realities that we accept as normal under capitalism

Far better than the shitheads that add nothing to the world and become billionaires through financial manipulation and employee exploitation.

Seriously, 1.2b a drop in the ocean compared to generationally wealthy who leech off of society paying almost no tax by extending tax liability to infinity through gifting and buying politicians who create loopholes for them.
I can't think of a single person who became a billionaire, yet added nothing of a value to the world. Sure they may have manipulated and exploited while at it, but there's still usually a product of some sort in the end, and the fact that they became wealthy indicates there was demand for said product.
- If someone adds value to the world, but does so through exploitation of the workforce, scamming their customers, or tax evasion. They didn't actually add anything to the world. They are net negative.
- That’s an argument for the product, but the system still promotes shitheads to the heads of the companies that deliver said products.
  And that still means shitheads are shitheads, regardless of the amount of money they have.
- Net negative matters.
  I could, for example, kill every animal in the forest then claim how good it is that the plants grew so much that year without so many things eating them. In the long run, it's very negative however.
  Same for billionaires. You could say how great it is that we have electric cars, but who gets hurt and could it have been done without harm to people or society?

First of all, they are not getting $1.2B. The lump sum cash value is $551.7M. The usually reported jackpots are presented in terms of the value of a 30 year annuity.

Second, those winnings are before taxes. After taxes, depending on the state, the person will walk away with $280m-350m.

Now, sure, that is still an absurd amount, but still like 1/4th the stated jackpot.

That's more reasonable.
- Also most lottery winners end up dead or bankrupt within a few years of winning.

I think it's somewhat charming tbh. Everyone gets a tiny, miniscule chance of never having to work again. I rarely buy a ticket, but when I do I spend all week imagining all the fun things I'd do with the money.

As the other poster said, though, it's sad when folks get addicted to it.

It's because most people who win don't have good habits with money, and they don't know how to keep their mouth shut. They tell people, and they spend it frivolously.
You find out fast if your friends or family love you or not.
- I mean the very fact that they are spending money on the lottery tells me that chances are they have bad spending habits.
  And please, you, yes you, the person that buys lottery tickets and feels the need to explain to me how it's ok, we get it you're built different and aren't addicted or whatever, but there are still so many better things you could be spending it on.
I may act different if I actually saw half a billion dollars in my account but I would I'd buy a house and car for each family member, save 20mil to live off the interest, and then donate the rest towards projects like spine repair medicine or desalination or something. Or maybe buy a shitload of solar panels for homes.
- How about lending your old pal kryllic a couple of bucks?
it is weird how people say that getting a lot of money, the thing whole world is based on, all humans work every day to get, is the worst thing that happened to them.
Shakespeare - shot by someone who was trying to get his money
David Lee Edwards - was a convict, spent a lot in several years, lost all his money and died.
Jeffree Dampier: was sleeping with his wife's sister, shot and killed by her and her husband.
Urooj Khan: coughs blood and dies the next day of getting his check. Cyanide poisoning.
Michael Karoll: "parties, coke, hookers, cars"
Harrell Jr: spent too much, lent too much, killed himself after his wife left him.
Stories go on and on. Almost all of them can be linked to already unstable, unwell people, their inability to manage the money properly or them not shutting up about the huge cash pile they recently sat on, to the trashy, money crazed people around them.

They should split it up into $100,000 increments. Yeah, that's not a billion, but that could still be life-changing for thousands of families.

That's not how lotteries work.
- In the UK, you can take a lump sum or instalments just like this . Infact your get more if you take the instalments.

The entire idea of a statewide lottery seems awful to me. I think there should be a cap on the size and reach of any one lottery. It's been shown to be more harmful than helpful to dump millions of dollars on one person's bank account.

Then you'll feel better knowing that in the US that whomever wins that Powerball will end up with less than half the amount they won. Taxes will eat up about 60% of the winnings .

And then, statistically, their life will be ruined so... Grotesque indeed
- I would be willing to fall on that sword for the unlucky soul that wins that lottery. I actually knew someone that won the 10 million publishers clearance house back in the 1980's. Classic story of they were dirt poor before the win and dirt poorer about 5 years after the win. Banks lined up to give them loans and they took them all since the prize didn't pay out in a lump sum. After the interest their yearly checks and more were gone... But they had "stuff" for awhile.
And of course the US government only does cool and awesome things with that money that everybody in the country benefits from.

San Francisco spends $700 million a year dealing with their roughly 7,000 unhoused people. They could just give every one of them $100,000 a year and spend less, and probably have better results.

Pretty sure that if they didn't spend 700 million, there would be quite a lot more than 7000 unhoused people.
No they couldn't. If being homeless paid six figures there would suddenly be a lot more homeless people.

Considering how many of their lives go off the rails, yes.

There should be a cap on maximum wealth / revenu

The public opinions on Lemmy are fucking daffy. So on top of everything else, yall are cool with predatory gambling system that randomly ruins one person's life?

By saying you're not "cool" with the lottery, does that mean you want it abolished? I don't like the lottery. I don't think it should be outlawed. Would you classify me as either cool with it or daffy?
- Certainly less daffy than the people playing it or praising it. I don't know your reason why you think a state function that harms people for money should be allowed to exist, but I'm guessing it's not a very rational one.
Help me out, who's life is being ruined?
- check out the mortality rate of lottery winners, or other outcomes

it is completely ridiculous, all lotteries should be outlawed

Most states have a 50% payout, with the other 50% going to schools and other public works. So, every time someone wins a lottery, the general public also wins that lottery.
I'm perfectly happy with a voluntary tax on people who are bad at math. I don't want lotteries outlawed. I want them expanded. I think we should make lottery tickets (partially) tax deductible. I think there is an argument to be made that if lottery earnings are considered income, lottery tickets should be considered an expense. The state is going to end up with half that money anyway; I think $0.50 on the dollar should be tax deductible.
- it's all accounting bullshit.. paying for schools with gambling money is weak and corrupt.. we have the money to pay for schools without it.. we like to pass the responsibility off to someone else, that's all.. and when you think about it, a voluntary tax on the uneducated to pay for schools isn't real bright, is it..