The Boston Globe documented how the lottery saturates poor Massachusetts neighborhoods with outlets. For example, Chelsea, an economically struggling community, has one lottery retailer for every 363 residents. By comparison, the affluent suburb of Milton has one for every 3,657 residents. Chelsea residents, many of whom are on welfare, spend nearly eight percent of their incomes on lottery tickets.
… a store owner [in Chelsea] told us, “The lottery is no good. It robs from my neighbors. People lose a lot of money. The government has no business being involved.” Then we learned that when the social security and
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