Sociodemographic Predictors of Lottery Gambling

A lottery is a low-odds game of chance or process in which winners are selected by random drawing. It can be used in a variety of decision-making situations, such as sports team drafts and the allocation of scarce medical treatment.

Lottery gambling is the most common form of gambling in the United States. State lotteries are a significant source of revenue for many governments. In North America, the top five states in terms of ticket sales are Florida, California, New York, Illinois and Ohio.

Despite their popularity, there is a growing controversy over the effects of lottery gambling. One major concern is that the lottery encourages people to spend money they can’t afford to lose. Another is that lottery gambling can lead to addiction.

The lottery is also known to prey on poorer communities. A recent report from the Howard Center found that in some states, retailers of state lotteries are located disproportionately in lower-income neighborhoods.

Gambling is a double tax on the poor, says University of Maryland researcher John Fong. In addition to a regressive tax on poorer Americans, the lottery also creates more opportunities for problem gamblers, explains Fong.

Sociodemographic predictors of lottery gambling

The present study examined sociodemographic predictors of gambling on the lottery from adolescence through older adulthood, using a negative binomial regression model. Specifically, age, male gender, neighborhood disadvantage and whether or not the lottery was legal in the respondents’ state were tested together to identify those factors that predicted the mean number of days respondents gambled on the lottery in the past year.