Lotteries sure seems like an "old person's game". Pass by any kiosk and it's usually old people. If there are tables nearby, you'll usually see a senior sitting there thumbing through 6/49 tix or doing scratch tix.
I don't see lotteries as fun. More of a "I hope to drop $10 on it and hit the jackpot". The fact lots of old people do it show they are probably broke and hoping they can make a million. 99.999% of them will become more broke doing it. But then the marketing glitz comes out that Bob, a retired guy who worked his life making minimum wage just won $20,000,000. So that creates hysterics that any Bob or Suzy can win big.
But oh, I forgot. The government does have ethics. They have that super tiny line saying... what's the line.... "know your limit". And that's all there is really to prevent Senior Steve from dumping his pension into scratch tix.