Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Andrew Davis and I'm Gillian Woodward.
Speaker 2: Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is
Speaker 2: easier for people to understand no matter where in the
Speaker 2: world they live.
Speaker 1: William Post did not have an easy life. His mother
Speaker 1: died when he was young. After that, his father sent
Speaker 1: him away. When he grew up, he worked any job
Speaker 1: he could find. One day, William had only forty dollars.
Speaker 1: He decided to spend all forty dollars on a chance
Speaker 1: to win a lot of money in the lottery.
Speaker 2: William Post's life changed that day. He won sixteen million dollars.
Speaker 2: He thought his life would now be perfect, but later
Speaker 2: he described his win this way.
Speaker 3: Every person dreams of winning money, but no one understands
Speaker 3: the problems. They come from places you cannot even see.
Speaker 1: William's life did change after winning, but in a bad way.
Speaker 1: He spent a lot of money on things he did
Speaker 1: not need. He bought houses, cars, and televisions. Everyone began
Speaker 1: to ask him for money. People even took him to
Speaker 1: court to get it. William lost all his money. He
Speaker 1: was one million dollars in debt by the time he died.
Speaker 1: He told reporters that the money did not make his
Speaker 1: life better or easier. I was much happier when I
Speaker 1: did not have any money.
Speaker 2: Today's spotlight is on the lottery. Lotteries are a popular
Speaker 2: kind of gaming. There are different ways to decide the
Speaker 2: winner of a lottery, but the basic rules are the same.
Speaker 2: People buy a ticket or piece of paper with numbers
Speaker 2: on it, then the winning numbers are chosen by chance.
Speaker 2: If your numbers are the same as the winning numbers,
Speaker 2: you receive the prize money.
Speaker 1: There are lotteries all around the world. Many lotteries are
Speaker 1: managed by the government. Most of these lotteries give some
Speaker 1: of the money raised by ticket sales for education, roads,
Speaker 1: or other government programs. In large lotteries, this can be
Speaker 1: millions of dollars.
Speaker 2: However, some people argue that these lotteries do not help
Speaker 2: countries as much as they seem to. These people admit
Speaker 2: that lotteries provide money for social programs, but a government
Speaker 2: may not give as much tax money to social programs
Speaker 2: because of the lottery money. Then if the lottery stops,
Speaker 2: or if people play less, the programs will not survive.
Speaker 2: Valerie Strauss is a reporter. She spoke to the Washington
Speaker 2: Post about lottery funding. In the United States.
Speaker 4: Instead of using the money as extra funding, the government
Speaker 4: has used lottery money to pay for the education budget.
Speaker 4: They spend the money that would have been used had
Speaker 4: there been no lottery cash on other things.
Speaker 1: But government lotteries are not the own only kind of lottery.
Speaker 1: There are also illegal lotteries. People print pieces of paper
Speaker 1: that look like real lottery tickets, but they never declare
Speaker 1: a winner. They keep the money. Other illegal lotteries may
Speaker 1: declare a winner, but only award a small amount of
Speaker 1: the money collected. Because illegal lotteries are not managed by
Speaker 1: the government, the people running them can do whatever they want.
Speaker 2: More and more illegal lotteries are using the Internet. A
Speaker 2: person may get an email or text message inviting them
Speaker 2: into a worldwide lottery. Sometimes the email says that the
Speaker 2: person has already won. They only need to go to
Speaker 2: a website and buy a chance to win. But like
Speaker 2: the lottery with false tickets, this illegal lottery will not
Speaker 2: give anyone prize money.
Speaker 1: Imagine you had an extra ten dollars each week you
Speaker 1: are thinking about playing a lottery. The idea of winning
Speaker 1: millions of dollars is tempting. You could do a lot
Speaker 1: of things. If you won, you could help a lot
Speaker 1: of people, and it would be nice not to have
Speaker 1: to worry about earning money. So is it a good
Speaker 1: idea for you to play that lottery?
Speaker 2: It is important to understand the chances of winning. The
Speaker 2: reason that most lotteries can offer so much money is
Speaker 2: because the chance of winning is so small. One of
Speaker 2: the largest lotteries in the world is called Mega Millions.
Speaker 2: It only costs one dollar to play, and it offers
Speaker 2: very large prizes. However, the chance of winning the highest
Speaker 2: prize is one in two hundred and ninety million. To
Speaker 2: win a smaller prize like two hundred dollars, the chances
Speaker 2: are a little better, one in fourteen thousand.
Speaker 1: Here is a comparison. A person is more likely to
Speaker 1: be hit by lightning or to be killed by a
Speaker 1: dog than to win the lottery. For every kilometer a
Speaker 1: person drives in a car, they are six times more
Speaker 1: likely to be killed than to win a lottery like
Speaker 1: Mega Millions.
Speaker 2: If there is so little chance of winning, why do
Speaker 2: people continue to play. One reason is that many lottery
Speaker 2: games have additional prizes of one or two dollars. When
Speaker 2: people play the lottery, these small wins make them feel good.
Speaker 2: They remember the wins and forget the losses.
Speaker 1: Also, studies show that poor people buy more lottery tickets
Speaker 1: than rich people. Many poor people do not understand how
Speaker 1: unlikely it is they will win. Even if they do,
Speaker 1: they may play the lottery anyway. It may be that
Speaker 1: poor people do not have the resources to help themselves.
Speaker 1: They may play the lottery for an emotional reason. They
Speaker 1: may see the lottery as their only hope for a
Speaker 1: better future. David just is a teacher of economics at
Speaker 1: Cornell University. He told CNN.
Speaker 5: It is an investment. It may not be a good investment,
Speaker 5: but to people with limited resources, this may be the
Speaker 5: only way that they have to sort of dream big,
Speaker 5: to think that something, something great is going to happen,
Speaker 5: something that will just change everything.
Speaker 2: But the lottery is not the only thing people can
Speaker 2: do with money. Over a long time, saving money can
Speaker 2: add up. If a person took the ten dollars they
Speaker 2: spend on lottery tickets and saved it, after twenty years,
Speaker 2: they would have over ten thousand dollars. If that ten
Speaker 2: thousand dollars was invested wisely, it could increase to thirty
Speaker 2: thousand dollars. This is not millions of but it is
Speaker 2: real money and it could help pay for a home
Speaker 2: or an education.
Speaker 1: Everyone wonders what will happen in the future. We think
Speaker 1: that by winning the lottery, we will know that our
Speaker 1: future will be great. But money cannot prevent accidents from happening.
Speaker 1: It cannot stop people from getting sick. The story of
Speaker 1: William Post shows that money can solve some problems, but
Speaker 1: it causes other problems.
Speaker 2: What do you do when you worry about the future.
Speaker 2: Do you think about money? What else helps assure you
Speaker 2: about your future? You can leave a comment on our
Speaker 2: website at www dot Spotlight English dot com. You can
Speaker 2: also find us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and x You
Speaker 2: can also get our programs delivered directly to your Android
Speaker 2: or Apple device through our free official Spotlight English app.
Speaker 1: The writer of this program was from the Spotlight team.
Speaker 1: The producer was Michyo Ozaki. The producer was Dan Christman.
Speaker 1: The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and
Speaker 1: the United States. All quotes were adapted for this program
Speaker 1: and voiced by Spotlight. This program is called the Lottery,
Speaker 1: Big Money or Big Problem.
Speaker 2: We hope you can join us again for the next
Speaker 2: Spotlight program, Goodbye,