The poor lose most on state-run lotteries. Governments promote their lotteries as harmless fun for all socio-economic groups, and claim that both the rich and the poor spend about the same amount on lottery tickets. Yet in the UK the poorest 10% of society spends 2.6% of its income on the lottery, while the richest 10% spends only 0.3%. The most frequent lottery players are the middle-class employed, but the unemployed and pensioners spend proportionately much more of their available income.