Too Much Of A Good Thing?
Added: June 15, 2015
Or something else entirely? Perhaps you saw a mention of this recent news coming from the state of new Jersey. As you know, New Jersey is one of the few states in the country that have taken a proactive stance towards gambling, online casinos and the like. At the same time, you may not know that New Jersey also has what was until recently a thriving state lottery system.
What’s new and what has many gambling pundits scratching their collective heads is that it is beginning to look as if the casual lottery ticket buyer is simply choosing not to participate as much or even at all. Now do take note of the fact that this news is all about what is referred to in the industry as the so called “casual lotto player”. That is to say, the lotto ticket buyer who only ever plays this game of chance occasionally at best. In contrast, the regular lottery ticket buyer can be counted on to play on a somewhat regular basis. The point here is that the state counts on both ticket buyers when setting up the annual budget. Should large numbers of these lottery players lose interest, the resulting loss in revenue could become significant.
What is going on now is that the casual player seems to have lost interest in regular sized jackpots. No longer are $50 Million, $100 Million jackpots enough. You see, it looks as if those jackpot levels just no longer interest the casual lottery ticket buyer enough to cause him/her to reach into the wallet and pull out hard earned money for a chance to win. What lottery officials are suggesting is unless and until the size of the winning jackpot heads upwards of $200 Million, even $300 Million or more, these casual lottery ticket buyers simply choose to stay home and wait for a better chance to win. At the same time, it is interesting to note that sales of games such as scratch cards have gone up by about 10%.
Does this mean that the scratch card buyer believes that the odds are better? Does this mean that the casual lottery ticket buyer believes the odds of winning the state lottery are so incredibly tiny that it hardly ever makes sense to splurge for a ticket anymore?
Bottom line is that it is way to early to know the answers to these questions. Best keep a close eye on this one to see how it plays out. No one knows since the issue has not been looked at yet is whether or not the casual lottery ticket buyer is simply spending money elsewhere, such as a favorite online casino.