A new survey reveals that more than one-quarter of Americans believe their best chance to build wealth for retirement is not by patiently saving and investing, but by playing the lottery. It would be easy to dismiss the findings of this study, commissioned by the Consumer Federation of America and the financial services firm Primerica, as one more example of how silly people can be if it weren’t for the fact that this delusion is promoted by every state government that promotes lottery games.

And that includes Maine, with the heaping helpings of pie-in-the-sky it serves up with its full menu of Megabucks, instant cash drawings and scratch-off tickets. The ads, with upbeat music and elated winners tooling about in convertibles, encourage people to imagine the possibilities. The disclaimers — tiny-text, speed-talk warnings about the long odds and the distinct likelihood of losing that require the eyes of an eagle and the ears of a German Shepherd to detect — ignore the truth.

An even more disturbing finding of the survey is that lotteries generate false hopes in an inverse relationship to income. While 27 percent of Americans think they’ll strike it rich playing the numbers racket, the percentage jumps to 40 percent among those with household incomes of $35,000 or less. That’s nearly $3,000 more than the median household income in Maine.

Other results from the poll are equally discouraging. Less than half — 47 percent — said saving and investing are the most reliable route to financial security. Less than one-third came even close to figuring out that a mere $25 invested weekly for 40 years at 7 percent interest would amount to nearly $300,000. Add to that Census Bureau data that half of American households have less than $1,000 in savings and that Americans, despite a robust economy, save at a rate far below other developed nations.

The state’s role in this scam is beyond dispute. It promotes gambling, it generates false hope, it tallies up the take. But it does virtually nothing to level with the public. If Maine is to continue in the gambling business, it must, above all, provide the players with clear, understandable information about the odds.

But since Maine has helped perpetuate the myth of instant riches, it also has an obligation to assess the damage and undo it. The state knows how much is spent on lottery games overall, but it does not know specifically who’s doing the spending. If the national results apply here, and there’s no reason the assume they don’t, the poorest Maine working families are spending themselves into impoverished retirement, at an enormous social cost.

It is not unreasonable to expect that every dollar the state spends pushing gambling should be matched by a dollar spent advertising the benefits of regular saving and prudent investment. The state has been promoting improbable dreams. It’s time it faced reality.