At twenty years old, I didn’t have a steady job or enough money to buy consistent meals, but I could definitely put some cash aside to blow on tickets at the corner store. I can’t explain this except to say that it is seductive, to feel as though your luck might change in an instant, that you don’t have to work your way through or toward anything. Just that one day, the numbers will fall in your favor, and your problems will be held under the raging waters of newfound wealth. And yes, of course, this cycle preys on the poor and on the desperate, but if you’ve ever been poor enough and
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