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Why Play A Losing Game? Study Uncovers Why Low-income People Buy Lottery Tickets
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by ryanborja | July 25, 2008 at 12:51 am
363 views | 14 Recommendations | 3 comments
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Although state lotteries, on average, return just 53 cents for every dollar spent on a ticket, people continue to pour money into them -- especially low-income people, who spend a larger percentage of their incomes on lottery tickets than do the wealthier segments of society.
A new Carnegie Mellon University study sheds light on the reasons why low-income lottery players eagerly invest in a product that provides poor returns.
In the study, published in the July issue of the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, participants who were made to feel subjectively poor bought nearly twice as many lottery tickets as a comparison group that was made to feel subjectively more affluent. The Carnegie Mellon findings point to poverty's central role in people's decisions to buy lottery tickets.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (3)
at 00:59 on July 25th, 2008
Yes, this is very true in my country, the Philippines. You could see round the clock that the poor people are the ones lining up in lottery stations. Games of chance is believed to be the means these poor people see that will lift them up from poverty.
at 06:43 on July 26th, 2008
ryanborja, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 20:50 on July 26th, 2008
ryanborja, I like this story. It's good stuff.