Personal opinion with absolutely no evidence to back it up: because people are more and more desperate, especially about money. There is nothing left to look forward to for the poor and lower class except the hope of a quick fix / windfall. Everything is expensive, they’re barely making it paycheck to paycheck, these few dollars aren’t going to make a difference either way, why not just go for big money?

They can’t afford to have kids, they can’t afford a house, they can’t afford a nice meal in a restaurant every once in a while, and they have no safety net of savings or even parents with a house they can live in to get them through an emergency. The only way out is money and lots of it. It’s this or the lottery.

I keep saying “they,” but all it would take is a job loss for most of the US to be right there, including me.