I wish the media stopped propagating the cycle of pump-and-dump baiting the general public. Someone is going to stuck paying off a check they probably can't afford in the end.
People do this all the time though: people in my village buy lottery tickets with money they cannot afford to spend all the time. And there is not much or any advertising for that here.
In my State the lottery funds undergraduate tuition (when I had it it was 100% tuition but now it’s less with another program funding the leftover) and a 4 year old prekindergarten program across the state.
Most state lotteries “fund education” but that’s usually a marketing gimmick. When there are shortfalls they find the money elsewhere and when there’s a surplus it finds it’s way to other things.
You could just as well say the lottery funds bond debt payments and general revenues fund education.
Yea BBC reporting is not what it used to be IMHO. Having said that fair play to him - his github is here if anyone is interested https://github.com/benyaminahmed