“Funding education through the lottery is like peeing in the corner of a swimming pool.”

Ads for the state lottery feature singing children thanking lottery players, and happy school kids with new school supplies. Consequently, many people believe the 68 billion dollars spent on the lottery per year end up in school coffers. In reality, the ads blasted on billboards all over the state professing the lottery as an enormous source of education funding, are not conveying the whole truth. In fact, for all the claims stating the lottery is good for education and “does good things”, lottery funding for education has decreased dramatically over the last few years, and in some cases, has halted completely in the 21 out of the 24 states that use lottery.  Some of those states spend less on education now than they did before the lottery was implemented.

In reality, the lottery is a giant, state-run gambling ring that exploits low income families – they spend the most on lottery tickets.  And a person’s chance of winning the lottery is a tiny 1 in 176 million.

Watch John Oliver break it all down in this hilarious clip about the lottery, education, and peeing in the corner of a swimming pool.