This is technically true, but the end result is that if you abolish the lottery (unpopular) you have to raise taxes (even more unpopular) to replace lost revenue.

Sin taxes work so well at plugging funding gaps specifically because they are optional.

That and they are taxing the poor and under educated who are least likely to complain.

Making things explicit such as stamping a “45% Tax” on lottery tickets really changes people’s perception. The Trump administration almost flipped out when Amazon considered explicitly adding tariffs to people’s checkout.