Lotteries have emerged as the most popular form of gambling among Australians with 44.8% of the adult population having purchased a lottery or scratch card in the 12 months to 30 June 2018, a new study by Roy Morgan has found.
The study, titled “Gambling Currency Report”, surveyed 50,000 people and found that around 10.6 million people representing 55.4% of the qualified population had gambled at some stage during the year.
While overall gambling participation rates have fallen in recent years, the purchase of lottery and scratch cards has held steady with 7.7 million Australians having bought a lottery ticket of any sort in the year to June 2018.
However, like most forms of gambling in the period the prevalence of buying lottery tickets or scratch cards increased with age, with 55.6% of those aged 50-64 years old buying tickets in an average three month period.
In contrast only 12.6% of Australians aged 18 to 24 years old and 27.2% of Australians aged 25 to 34 years old buy lottery or scratch cards over three months. 39.2% of Australians aged 35 to 49 years old buy lottery or scratch cards, putting the group firmly in line with the national average of 39.9%.
Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine said that while the participation rate for lotteries and scratch cards outstrips other forms of gambling including betting, casino games, keno and slot machines, the spending patterns on lottery and scratch tickets means they only take up about 13% of Australians’ overall gambling spend compared with over 60% on slot machines.
“Although overall participation rates for buying lottery and scratchie tickets have been fairly stable over the last three years, analyzing the overall spending patterns in the category shows an increase of nearly 14% in total spending on lottery and scratchie tickets driven by increases in spending on Oz Lotto, Powerball, Other Lotteries and Scratchie tickets,” Levine added.
“Clearly one of the biggest drivers of spending on lottery tickets is the prospect of huge jackpots of up to $100 million … the prospect of a life-changing lotto win is massively enhanced and attracts Australians in droves in search of a lucky ticket.”
RelatedPosts
