Progressive-prize lotteries are lottery products whose jackpot grows as a function of ticket sales. When there are no claimed winning tickets after a draw, the jackpot ‘rolls over’ to the next draw. This is often referred to as the lottery rollover effect. The purpose of this study was to examine the lottery rollover effect in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The researchers received data from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation. Using postal codes associated with lottery product sales, the researchers examined the data by geographic areas and socioeconomic status.
The findings showed that the larger the jackpot, the greater the lottery sales. Sales per capita were higher in neighbourhoods with lower SES. But ticket sales in neighbourhoods with higher SES were more influenced by the rollover effect and fluctuations in jackpot size. The researchers found that education was a stronger driver of this effect than income. At time points when there were higher progressive-prize lottery sales, there was also an increase in fixed-prize lottery sales.
