This makes no sense on paper. We all know lottery games have insanely high odds, but it's still a fun little fantasy to have in the back of our minds when played responsibly. I don't know about anyone else, but the BS of day-to-day work life is made a little more tolerable knowing, hey, who knows.

But now NY/NJ are making even this fun little fantasy worse for people for no reason. Instead of $2/play it's $5 for Cash 4 Life?! The odds are roughly the same at the top, but now we just have less opportunities to win. Cool.

They aren't even claiming poverty. They have enough money. They earned $110 million from Cash4Life in 2024-25. They don't say what they paid out, but on the big wins, only around $5 million.

Essentially, they'll either a) continue to generate the save revenue and just make the experience worse for everyone, or b) tempt people to spend more than they should, actively hurting people while making the experience worse for everyone.