Why Do People Buy Lottery Products?

Abstract

This paper examines the lottery sales of 99 countries by type of product in order to analyze the socioeconomic and demographic features that help to explain gambling consumption around the world. With a panel data analysis covering 13 years, this study explains the variation of a country’s per-capita lottery sales in general and by type of game: lotto, numbers, keno, toto, draw and instant. This paper found that the richer countries spend more than the poorer countries and the income elasticity of the demand for lottery products is greater than one. So, we may assert that there is an implicit progressivity tax in games when we consider countries rather than households. Several studies have also revealed an inverse relationship between education and the consumption of lottery products. This paper confirms this hypothesis for lotteries in general, but not for the specific lottery products.Gambling; Lotteries; Religiosity; Education; Culture; Age; Panel Data.