As probably all of you know, the Powerball lottery has reached mania levels, surpassing a billion dollars. Now, while the winner (if it's a single person) will not win all of that money themselves, because of the tax on the lottery, the question becomes: What happens to the rest of that money?

Well, the government gets it, of course. And this isn't an article bashing government spending on things, but more a point of showing that the spending from the lottery is not some noble civic duty that the government now has money to fund education or infrastructure with, even though that is often what the money is meant to be used for.

Now, I'm not angry at the people caught up in the hysteria; it's kind of fun to imagine what it would be like to win a billion dollars and get to keep probably close to half a billion for yourself. But the reality of the lottery is much darker than most people realize.

Just type "what does Virginia lottery help fund" (or whatever your home state is, if it has a local lottery), and you'll find that it is for sure a contested issue. Virginia Lottery is a big deal in, well, Virginia, with the proud proclamation that the lottery helps fund education programs. However, not everyone agrees this is true. The lottery companies state that they do help fund education, while educators are not as convinced.

Things like that kind of bother me about the lottery. Money is security, I get that, and as much as people want soon-to-be or just-out-of-college students to be bright-eyed to the prospects of the future, it is no secret that money is what makes the world go round (sorry, Deon Jackson).

Maybe it's just because I'm 22 and cynical and don't have a family or a house to pay for and think that money only seems to make people sadder, more anxious, and needier than they were previously, but having seen how these pieces of paper and metal circles have come to define and control everything we do in our daily lives, the lottery seems to me to be kind of eh.

Anyway, I'm not the first person to talk about the problems with the lottery, and that's not to even mention gambling and gambling addiction (which, whether you think is real or not, is real).

But the most concise version of this discussion has to be by self-proclaimed not-journalist John Oliver on his show, "Last Week Tonight," which talked about the lottery, problems with the lottery funding, and gambling within state lotteries.

Here is the full video:

Other news sources have already published articles about this video when it first premiered over a year ago, including (articles linked to names) Huffington Post, Gawker, Time Magazine, Tech Times, and definitely a lot more.

Anyway, happy playing, everyone.

And from the New Jersey Lottery: "Give Your Dream a Chance."

Or from the Vermont Lottery: "Play a Little."

Or the North Dakota Lottery: "Imagine the Possibilities."

Or the Kansas Lottery: "Dream Bigger."

Or the good ol' Virginia Lottery: "We're Game."

Or ... you get the idea.

Anyway, "Das Jus Me Doe" -- the1janitor

Tell me how wrong/stupid/naive I am!

What do you think of the lottery?

Let me know in the comments below!

And thank you for reading!