Commentary
State Services Suffer as Lottery Players Hold Out
- by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, June 9, 2009
This coping strategy mirrors that of the general U.S. population as a whole. When it comes to spending less or cutting out purchases of non-essential low cost items, Americans have reduced spending on items such as:
- Snack foods (42%)
- Video/DVD rentals (41%),
- Going to the movies (51%)
- Eating out (49%)
- Buying books or magazines (39%)
Paul Lauzon, Senior Vice President with Ipsos' Lottery & Gaming research practice, says "For those Americans... struggling during this recession... part of their coping strategies include reducing their spending on lottery games... as having a lower priority."
Reasons cited for cutting on lottery purchases mirrors the reasons cited for cutting back on purchases of non-essential items, except that more people cited the specific reasons for cutting back on lottery purchases. 34% of past year lottery players, and 37% of those from households earning under $50,000 per year, who acknowledged stopping or spending less on the lotteries, said that they now have less disposable income than in the past, and nearly one in five past year players stated lottery purchases were not priority items for them.
Among past year lottery players, 52% of women and 40% of men reported stopping or spending less on lottery game purchases. Similarly, significantly 54% from households earning under $50,000 a year in household income, and 56% with children in the household, reported stopping or spending less on lottery game purchases compared with 40% of respondents from households earning more than $50,000 a year, and 41% of households without children.
Lauzon concludes that, "... (since) many states and jurisdictions rely on the revenues from lotteries to fund key programs... a reduction in sales... translate into a reduction of services."
Please visit Ipsos here for more information.
Jack Loechner is the Editor of The Center for Media Research's daily Research Brief. You can reach him at jack@mediapost.com.
Let us remember the difference between consumer self-reporting and consumer action. All indications are that box office revenues are up over 2008 year-to-date levels. That contradicts the poll finding that 51% of those surveyed are reducing spending on movie tickets.
This study verifies the Lottery oppents' contention that a Lottery is a special tax on the poor. ;)
Consider the reality of the problem. Many states are relying on revenue from a product that does not deliver on the apparent promise. Lottery revenues are dropping because the primary buyers of lottery tickets are in the lower-middle class to the poverty class. These people often buy with the hopes of "striking it rich." All they have been getting is an empty wallet.
Now, as finances are tight, milk and eggs out-weighs the tickets. But we should consider that, as the popularity of the Lottery falls, perhaps the social costs of the Lottery may fall as well. Many of those service costs, such as increased crime, welfare, domestic abuse, bankruptcy, and drug dependency are direct or related consequences of playing the Lottery and other forms of gambling.
I hope that the opponents of gambling are able to push these Lotto stats even lower. As a nation - and especially as individual states - we need to got off the "Get Rich Quick" bandwagon and get back to the way we built this country. An investment management company of yesteryear put it best - "We make money the old fashioned way. We earn it!"
People get to keep what they earn, but the promise of instant wealth through gambling is ALWAYS an empty promise. And Gambling is one of the most guaranteed paths to poverty that there is.