So when you look at how poor people spend money, the rational economist would never advocate spending the money on the lottery. The utility is low [...] This m

So when you look at how poor people spend money, the rational economist would never advocate spending the money on the lottery. The utility is low [...] This misses the point of the article, which is that gambling should not be regarded as an investment, but as entertainement. But I agree that poor people are possibly more likely to see it the wrong way, i.e. as a good investment. The result is that the lottery has become a regressive tax. By the same argument you can conclude that potatoes are a regressive tax since they cost a higher fraction of the poors' revenues. When you give money to the government with nothing in return (except as a member of the collectivity), that is a tax. Not when you give money to a private company in exchange for some kind of entertainment.