Whenever the jackpots get "big" in the various lottery drawings, the news media gets on the story. There can be "team coverage" with reporters at different lottery ticket vendors, and even live coverage of the drawings themselves during regular news programs. News stations will promote their coverage, and news reporters and anchors will even make their own comments about buying a ticket or two.

At what point does the news coverage cross the line and become advertisements for the lotteries?

Is it proper for a reporter to post on Facebook or to send out Tweets that they are at certain "high volume" lottery ticket vendors and inviting their followers to come to the location or to be sure they bought a ticket?

Should the news media add to the hype by reporting big lottery jackpots and making it headline news in various newscasts? There are those, afterall, who do object to any kind of gambling and question whether coverage of a lottery is nothing more than hyping gambling.

And what is missing from the news coverage of the big jackpots are some of the essentials of balanced reporting: where do the lottery dollars go? And are lottery customers spending too much? And what about lost productivity?