I'm finding this a depressing read.<p>Hooray, we're figuring out all of the tricks to push people into "thinking myopically" and buying what we want them to buy.<p>Here are the triggers; here's how people make mistakes in buying decisions, and how to exploit that. Here's how to frame your sell (Get them to focus on loss! Remind them of their poverty!), here's how to get them to buy more tickets instead of just one.<p>Lottery tickets aren't too bad; they're harmless for most people buying them, there's a fun little kick of "what if...?", but (as the article points out) as revenue for the state, they are a regressive tax; poor people pay a much larger percentage of their income into lottery schemes than people who are better off, and of course some of them pay enough to really harm themselves, going for the "Hail Mary" solution to their money woes but just bleeding themselves slowly instead.<p>Winning isn't actually a positive result, either -- the article <i>doesn't</i> get into stats on attempted suicide, etc. for lottery winners, but they're not good.<p>Is there anyone out there using this kind of research to actually help people? Or to let people who're just playing a fun game, play it; but still protect the people who are grabbing at a false life preserver?