"Should people who don’t play the lottery, or don’t play as much or as often, benefit from HOPE? Perhaps not, says the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, an Atlanta-based think tank which published a report this month showing that residents in Georgia counties with the highest incomes get the most HOPE funding, far outpacing what they contribute to lottery sales. According to the GBPI report — “HOPE for Whom? For Some it Doesn’t Pay to Play the Lottery” — the average Georgian spends $500 annually on lottery tickets. Poorer people spent a lot more — $831 each in the state’s poorest counties compared to $419 in the wealthiest counties. “I ran the numbers a couple times to make sure that was right,” says Cedric Johnson, GBPI policy analyst and the study’s author. “But there was no question. People in poorer counties were literally spending twice as much as those in the more affluent counties."
— Rebecca Burns, If You Don’t Play the Lottery, Does Your Kid Deserve HOPE? - Five Points
