CNN published a news report on Wednesday indicating critics are taking aim at the lottery system for "systemic racism" after Powerball's $2 billion payout this week.
According to the outlet, researchers said state-run lotteries aggressively target Black and brown communities of lower income, misleading them to believe it will generate wealth.
"They're hoping to pay their rent at the end of the month or pay an outstanding medical bill or put their kids through college, or they just lost their job, and they're just trying to find a way to make ends meet," stated Les Bernal, the national director of Stop Predatory Gambling.
"Commercialized gambling, like state lotteries, like the Powerball drawing, they represent a financial exchange that is mathematically stacked against you," he added.
The outlet further cited a Howard Center for Investigative Journalism study that found stores selling lottery tickets are disproportionately located in poor communities of every state.
"Poor people are collateral damage to a cause of raising money for what the legislators feel is good purposes ... public safety, local schools," said Gregory W. Sullivan, the former inspector general of Massachusetts. "State governments become dependent on the revenue, and any moral considerations get pushed out of view and out of mind."
Lawyer Andrew Santana told Fox News that many are uneducated on how to walk away with the most after winning money, noting to check for whether your or the signatory's information will become public.
It is important not to tell anyone "other than an attorney engaged specifically to assist in claiming the prize" and "the people with whom you jointly purchased the ticket," Santana said.
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