Why people buy lottery tickets

According to research by the National Lottery, 60% of weekly lottery players are deemed working class. 12% are deemed to be middle or upper middle class. Studies in the UK have shown that middle and upper class people are less likely to buy lottery tickets than someone who is working class. People on benefits are 4% more likely to buy a ticket than those who are not. In the US, those most likely to buy a lottery ticket earn below the average salary.

What are the odds of winning the big prize?

• Irish lotto - 10,737,573 to one
• Euro millions - 139,838,160 to one
• UK lottery - 45,057,474 to one
• US Powerball - 292,200,000 to one

To put that into context, the chances of winning the Euro millions is the same as you being given someones name, flying to Russia and you picking them out of the entire population in one guess.

Hope

So why do a disproportionate amount of lower paid people buy lottery tickets and scratch cards? Hope. As the National Lottery says "it could be you". If you are on a lower salary, most of your money goes on the cost of living. There is no opportunity to grow wealth. You don't have thousands of euro that you can invest for the long term.

You can however afford €5 to buy 2 lines in the Euro millions. And while the odds of actually winning the jackpot are astronomical, people do win it. Like last week when one person scooped the €162 million Euro millions top prize. This is the hope it gives people to keep on buying tickets, even though most people will never win anything (myself and my wife did the lotto for years and never won anything significant).

High earners have control

Higher earners don't need the lottery to become wealthy, they can become wealthy themselves. Having a high income is the greatest way to be able to grow personal wealth. Unlike lower earners, there is lots of disposable income after cost of living expenses. This can go into pensions and investments, growing wealth over the long term. With an ability to add to it regularly and the power of compounding, higher earners can become wealthy by themselves. Buying lottery tickets is nothing more than a bit of fun.

Steven Barrett

14 October 2024