彩票是一种愚蠢的赌博，但所有人都享受这种愚蠢。
欧洲彩票业一直由来自法国、西班牙、英国的博彩业商家分别在法国、西班牙、英国等地控制着博彩业。彩票是向英国，爱尔兰，法国，西班牙，卢森堡，奥地利，比利时，葡萄牙和瑞士的玩家开放的，以参与者的人数来衡量，是全世界最大的彩票业。在过去的这个春天，欧洲每周有2600万人买彩票。抽奖结果在每个星期五晚上的9点到10点间公布，再被传送到各国，由各个国家进行独立的统计。获得的奖金是免税的，并会一次性全额给付。这一点不同于美国，在美国，奖金是要收税的，且获奖者可以选择一次取走奖金或在几年内分期取走。
同当代很多彩票业一样，欧洲彩票基金资助多项公益事业，但这不是让人们狂热的原因。什么是彩票销售是取决于“法国游戏”老总克里斯托夫布兰查德-迪尼亚克先生的一个梦想，这个梦想饱含着他的个人财富，彩票也许是世界上获胜机会最小的游戏，因为这不是通过努力就能成功的游戏。
也许到目前为止彩票是最经久不衰的赌博方式，老虎机是工业革命的产物， 骰子和游戏卡则来自于时尚（现在已没有人玩Hazard or Faro，那是18、19世纪流行的）。体育博彩的模式和方法在不同国家和文化中不尽相同，但这种以小小的机会掘取巨大财富的方式是具有普遍吸引力的。
从历史上来看，大型博彩业的产生有两个目的：鼓励现金交易、促进公民的社会福利。在1522年，一个威尼斯商人提供了一种方式，参与者可通过交纳一小笔费用获得到地毯的公平机会。两个世纪后，美国推行了一种与殖民地高额的财产价值不可分割的彩票机制，美国总统（1801-1809） 托马斯·杰斐逊十分推崇这种以小风险获得高额奖金的方式。
来自彩票业的收益帮助修复了在苏塞克斯和肯特海岸的五港同盟，并修建了威斯敏斯特桥。收益还为美国的教育机构，如哥伦比亚大学、耶鲁大学、威廉姆斯和达特茅斯学院的发展提供经费支持。乔治华盛顿称博彩业为“贪婪的孩子，邪恶的兄弟，伤痛的父亲”，而本杰明富兰克林1746年在费城组织了彩票业。
现在法国博彩业的发展开始于1933年，目的是为了帮助在第一次世界大战后留下的伤病、孤寡及儿童。现如今，法国的博彩业为法国体育提供支持，2009年，在法国中心发展银行的数据中占体育预算的80%。在英国，自1994年彩票第一次抽奖至今已向社会各领域，包括体育、艺术、传统和教育等贡献240亿英镑的公益金。
在美国，教育也是博彩业公益金的主要贡献领域，自1984年起，加州博彩业的收益中1美元就有34美分投向公立学校。2009年起，阿肯色州的博彩业有了另一个明确的目的，那就是为本州的学生和大学提供奖学金。而在乔治亚州，博彩业已为超过100万的当地居民提供了大学奖学金。
为什么博彩业得到公民广泛支持的传统原因，也许就是接触起来比其它赌博方式更容易。世界彩票协会的成员国有90多个，美国的大部份州都有彩票，即使哪个州没有彩票发行，居民也可以通过彩票公司的强力球和超级百万买到其它州的彩票。
在经济困难时期，彩票业也在探寻新的发展空间。彩票现已占据了全球三分之一的赌博市场，而如今，在刮刮卡和号码抽奖的基础上还有网上抽奖，手机在线抽奖，更为便捷的参与方式将为彩票业占领更广阔的市场且获得更大的收益。
钱，来自于社会大众，以政府应用于合适的地方而被社会所认可。1731年，亨利菲尔丁在他们的民谣歌剧“彩票”（“The Lottery”）中写道：“买彩票如同交税。愚蠢的人为此做出贡献；孩童时被赞扬，被推崇，人们普遍相信奇迹：因为，愚蠢好似基金，永远都有市场，彩票将长盛不衰。”2006年，根据全美州议会会议统计，彩票业税收额为170亿美元，而赢得超级百万大奖的机会是1.76亿分之一，相比之下，一个人被雷击中的几率仅仅是75万分之一。
如果彩票真是税收的话，它将不会有光明的前景。2009年，一项由英国智囊团西奥斯（Theos）主持的研究发现：在英国，低收入者比高入收者花在彩票上的钱占收入比例更高。在南卡罗来纳州，年收入在4万美元以下的家庭占本州人口比例为28%，但他们中的一半以上都会经常买彩票。
税收基金会研究表明：20%以上的美国人认为买彩票是一项完美退休计划的重要组成部分。圣路易斯联邦储备银行的这项研究在美国七个州开展，研究发现：消费在彩票上的钱，一部分来自于一些如社会保障，失业或残疾津贴类的政府补贴。
想通过买彩票中大奖致富也许是一种愚蠢的赌博，但这么多人热忠于这种梦想的方式，想让政府取消这种方式也是不现实的。欧洲人对于彩票的热情已促使组织“欧洲百万大奖”和“强力球”的法国游戏等组织者在2012年推出一项全球性的彩票。
Lotteries are a bad bet, but everybody loves them
EuroMillions is run jointly by the Fran?aise des Jeux, Loterías y Apuestas del Estado and Camelot, which operate the French, Spanish and British lotteries respectively. It is open to players in Britain, Ireland, France, Spain, Luxembourg, Austria, Belgium, Portugal and Switzerland; measured by the number of players, it is the world’s biggest lottery. During the week of the missed draw last spring some 26m Europeans bought tickets. The draw takes place in Paris every Friday night between 9pm and 10pm; it is recorded and sent to the participating countries, which work the footage into their own presentations. The prizes are tax-free and handed over at once and in full, whereas in America the prizes are taxed and the winners are generally given the option of receiving the full amount in yearly instalments or a portion of it as an immediate lump sum.
Like most modern lotteries, EuroMillions funds good causes of many kinds. But that is not what gets people excited. What the lottery sells, according to Christophe Blanchard-Dignac, the head of Fran?aise des Jeux, is a dream. That dream is of great personal wealth, even if the lottery is perhaps the only game in the world in which your chances of winning are not greatly increased by playing because the odds are so long.
And yet lotteries have been perhaps the most enduring form of gambling. Slot machines are an outgrowth of the Industrial Revolution; card and dice games go in and out of fashion （who now bets on Hazard or Faro, popular in the 18th and 19th centuries?）； the patterns and subjects of sports betting vary widely between countries and cultures; but the idea of taking a small flutter on a chance of immense riches holds almost universal appeal.
Historically, large-scale lotteries have served two purposes: encouraging commerce in cash-poor societies and contributing to civic welfare. In 1522 a Venetian dealer offered punters the chance to win carpets in a draw for a small entry fee. Two centuries later lotteries in colonial America provided a mechanism for selling indivisible, expensive pieces of property. Thomas Jefferson approved of this method “where many run small risks for the chance of obtaining a high prize”。
Proceeds from lotteries helped to fund repairs to the Cinque Ports on the Sussex and Kent coasts, and to build Westminster Bridge. They also generated finance for such notable American institutions as Columbia and Yale universities and Williams and Dartmouth colleges. George Washington called gambling “the child of avarice, the brother of iniquity and the father of mischief”， but Benjamin Franklin organised a lottery in Philadelphia in 1746.
The modern French lottery began in 1933 to help people who had been widowed, orphaned or injured in the first world war. Today Fran?aise des Jeux finances French sports; its contributions accounted for more than 80% of the budget of the Centre National de Développement du Sport in 2009. In Britain, where more than 70% of the adult population play regularly, Camelot has distributed more than ?24 billion to good causes since its first lottery draw in 1994, including sport, arts, heritage and education.
Education is also a main recipient of American lottery largesse. California’s lottery has been giving 34 cents in every dollar to public schools since 1984. Arkansas started its lottery in 2009 with the express aim of funding scholarships for the state’s students and universities. And in Georgia lotteries have provided over 1m residents with scholarships to go to college.
This tradition of civic support may be one reason why lotteries are more widely accepted, and therefore more accessible, than other forms of gambling. The World Lottery Association has members from over 90 countries. Most American states have lotteries, and even in some of those that do not, residents can still buy tickets in the two multistate lotteries, PowerBall and Mega Millions.
Lotteries also hold their appeal well in tough times. They account for nearly one-third of the global gambling market, with sales expected to rise this year as the bets on offer grow more diverse: not just scratch cards and number draws but also online and mobile offerings, a small but increasingly important business.
Money taken from the general population and used by the government as it sees fit is also known by another name. Henry Fielding hit upon it in his ballad-opera “The Lottery”， written in 1731: “A Lottery is a Taxation,/Upon all the Fools in Creation;/And Heav’n be praised,/It is easily raised,/Credulity’s always in Fashion:/For, Folly’s a Fund,/Will Never Lose Ground,/While Fools are so rife in the Nation.” According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, in 2006 American lotteries generated nearly $17 billion in revenue for state governments. The chance of winning the Mega Millions jackpot is about one in 176m. For comparison, an individual’s chance of being struck by lightning is around one in 750,000.
And if lotteries are a tax, they suffer from being regressive. A study carried out in 2009 by Theos, a British think-tank, found that poor Britons spent a greater part of their income on lottery tickets, particularly scratch cards, than rich ones. In South Carolina, households with incomes of less than $40,000 a year account for 28% of the state’s population but more than half of its frequent lottery players.
More than one American in five thinks that buying lottery tickets constitutes a sound retirement plan, according to a Tax Foundation study. And research carried out by the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis in seven American states found that much of the money spent on lottery tickets came from some form of government assistance （such as social security, unemployment or disability benefit）。
Buying a lottery ticket may be a foolish bet, but given that people are so willing to play, it is unrealistic to ask governments not to back the game. European enthusiasm for lotteries has already led Fran?aise des Jeux, Camelot and MUSL, which runs Mega Millions and Powerball, to start planning for a global lottery, with a tentative launch date of 2012.
