Zero Hedge – by Tyler DurdenFor what appears to be the first time on record, Powerball Lottery Sales declined year-over-year. As the following slides show, lottery sales declined 19% in FY14 vs FY13 and even more stunningly reflective of a nation whose disposable income (and hope) is in such short supply, sales in the first half of FY15 are down 40% from the first of FY14. As LaFleurs concludes, this will make it very challenging for most Lotteries to manage their budgets…
Lottery Sales are plunging…
and the first half of 2015 looks even worse…
And it’s widespread…
And FY15 looks like a disaster…
But apart from that… The US economy is recovering!!!
h/t Nick Colas at ConvergEx
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It’s not just the US…
The UK National Lottery has had its worst six months of sales since its launch in 1994, operator Camelot reported today.
Revenue from the various Lottery games slumped to almost £2.3 billion in the period to September 28, down 5.2% on the same time last year.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-14/us-economy-so-bad-even-lottery-sales-are-collapsing
I once sent a letter to the Lottery Commission, (stupidly) suggesting a Lotto where the Grand Prize gets CAPPED at something like $10M, and all prize money after that be split 50/50; Half to the programs these lotteries support, and the other half works it’s way down to the lowest ‘winners’, where, rather than a $190 MILLION dollar winner (I mean, seriously, WHO could spend that!?) and a 3-number pic gets $5 – $18, any low-number winner would get $50 rather than a ‘replay’, 2 numbers, maybe $100-$200, 3 or 4 would be maybe $600-$1000, and 5 or so, maybe $2500+.
I would imagine an increase in Lotto sales, and a slight uptick in local economies, as most would ‘go out to dinner’ or maybe buy a little something…..putting the money back into the economy.
Oooops. I tried to apply ‘logic’ to government. Silly me.
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Many people have figured out. That a lottery need turn over 4 times to be worth buying the ticket. You buy the ticket you only win 50%. of that amount that came in to the lottery. Then you pay another 50% in tax’s back to the State and Federal government. So the take is 25% on the ticket. So it needs turn over 4 times just to make gambling odds. bad investment with a Casino down the road to waste your money in or on.
Rigged.
I buy scratch tickets every once in a while for fun. But I see people spending tons of money on those things.
My little running area of Texas.. Lottery folks are just tired of the low payout. Talked with many store cashiers.. they say people are just not buying due to low payout. But it could be no $$$.. I cut back due to my medical premium going up $400 in 3 years. Taxes up and house ins up also. Not to mention Food prices…
Mega Million sales are down because they have made it nearly impossible to win big money. Way too many numbers but more importantly the 2nd and 3rd prizes are ridiculous. Get the first 5 and not the Mega ball and you win $1 Million. That’s nice … but get 4 of the first 5 and the Mega ball and you only win $5,000. In both cases you got 5 of the 6 numbers. Win only $5,000 and you are very disheartened. I cut my MegaMillion purchases in half.
It MUST be an economic indicator, because I wouldn’t expect that Americans have learned enough math to understand what a stupid bet it actually is.
“The lottery is a tax for being bad at math” — seen on a T-shirt worn by a mathematician
Any one on here PERSONALLY know first hand anyone who won the big money of any of these so called lotteries ?
I think its all complete Bullstuff
its always “I know someone who knows someones brothers sisters friends cousins moms relative to their neighbors kids best friends teacher at schools baby sitters mom that won”
ahh yeah right .. spare me
Its another scam..and the money they say they have for the winner is just the amount they scammed out of those who fell for it
I love it when people say you will never win the lotto, and I ask them if they play and they say “no”, my answer to them is ” you are right you won’t”. If you don’t have the money don’t play. I play for fun and a few years back I had 5 numbers. I Know it’s a mugs game, hell when I was younger I worked in a Casino and saw many people lose their shirt.