(Editor’s note: The following article was written before Saturday night’s Powerball drawing. No one won the grand prize of about $900 million. The next drawing will be Wednesday.)

Tonight’s Powerball is expected to total $900 million. But you won’t get $900 million — not even close.

Most winners choose the lump-sum-payout option, which, in this case, will amount to $558 million. That is probably the smart move for a savvy saver in a low-interest-rate environment who will wisely allocate the cash in a diversified portfolio expecting to beat the rate of return of the 30-year-annuity option. But since most winners aren’t savvy investors, this is usually a bad option. The annuity forces the winner to be more disciplined, which, given the life-changing sum of money, is probably a good thing for most people.

But let’s not focus on the “winner” here because the real winner of the lottery system is not the person who buys the winning ticket. The real winner is the government, which taxes the winner. The government automatically withholds 25%, but the winner will be bumped into the highest marginal tax bracket in the case of the lump sum. In addition, the player will very likely pay a state tax (usually 4% to 9%) and perhaps even local taxes. While the Powerball will be marketed as a $900 million prize, the actual payout to a winner in, say, Washington D.C., will be only $289.6 million — a full 68% less than advertised.

Read:Powerball jackpot now $1.3 billion as, once again, there’s no winner

On the other hand:You should really buy a Powerball ticket today

Powerball Lottery Jackpot Rises to $1.3 Billion

Importantly, the revenue from the lottery is itself a type of tax often termed the “poor tax,” given that the lottery has a disproportionately negative impact on the poor. Typically, about 25% of the revenue goes to fund state programs, but according to Duke University economics professor Charles Clotfelter, author of “Selling Hope: State Lotteries in America,” there’s little evidence that this has any meaningful positive economic effect. Sadly, a whopping 15% of the revenue goes to financing the marketing of this gigantic economic drag. So the lottery system actually looks a lot more like a massive back-door tax scheme than anything else.

I find the whole lottery system rather disturbing. It preys on our behavioral biases and irrational understanding of money. So while the media will widely tout the “winner” of any drawing, the real winners will be the government entities that spend millions to promote a program that does little public good and hurts those who need the money most.

Cullen Roche is the founder of Orcam Financial Group LLC, a financial-services firm that offers low-fee asset-management, private-advisory, institutional-consulting and educational services. He also is the author of “Pragmatic Capitalism: What Every Investor Needs to Understand About Money and Finance” and “Understanding the Modern Monetary System.”