Powerball lottery jackpot hits $200 million
Posted: 3/7/2008 9:15:40 AM
The Powerball jackpot for Saturday's drawing — $200 million — has once again grown large enough to draw new or infrequent players to ticket counters.
The most popular lottery games are normally the $1 and $5 games that offer chances at prizes ranging from a few bucks to $1 million. Those are the heavy hitters for most state lotteries, generating as much as half of total sales.
The customers start to change, though, when the multi-state Powerball game starts touting jackpots approaching $200 million. A review of sales data for 2007 shows that Powerball sells better in places where people make more money.
Consider the top 10 ZIP codes in North Carolina for Powerball sales, found in urban areas in Greensboro, Charlotte, Wilmington and Raleigh. The median incomes ranged from $26,655 to $53,517.
Then consider the top 10 ZIP codes for scratch-off games, found in Rocky Mount, Lumberton, Reidsville and Morganton. The median incomes ranged from $26,655 to $40,546.
Such figures are, at best, a rough measure of who plays the lottery. Analyzing ZIP codes only shows where tickets are bought, not necessarily who's buying them. The method also doesn't necessarily account for how many stores sell lottery tickets in a given ZIP code or how many interstates or major thoroughfares run through a ZIP code. And the census data on median income is nearly 10 years old.
But the idea that big jackpot games such as Powerball sell among people who are already financially comfortable is generally true of lotteries, said Philip Cook, a Duke University professor who has studied the lottery industry.
One theory as to why, Cook said, is that it takes a lot more money to get someone who already makes a decent living to dream about instant riches.
"The game has, of course, a jackpot that is big enough to inspire excitement among people who are already comfortable," Cook said. "That's something that the instant games don't do."
Lottery players have a magic number — how much would it take to retire, Cook said.
For Mike Anthony, 31, a pharmaceutical salesman, that number was right around Wednesday's jackpot of $173 million. Anthony rarely buys lottery tickets of any kind, but he stopped by the Fiddle Stix Citgo on U.S. 64 near Interstate 540 Tuesday to buy $10 worth of Powerball tickets.
"The pot gets high enough, it's worth a shot," Anthony said.
The odds of winning the big jackpot are one in 146 million. The odds for winning top prizes in instant games are generally better, but still stacked heavily against the player.
After Anthony left, the next customers to buy tickets at the store — both are meter readers by profession — bought scratch-off tickets and said they don't play Powerball much.
But it's hard to typecast a lottery player at a store such as the Fiddle Stix, which sits on major roads and highways, and is on the way home for a lot of people.
"It's not just one type of person," said Ann Lomison, the store's manager. Usually the only absolute is that players wait until the day of the drawing to buy tickets.
The lottery doesn't study the people who play its games, said Tom Shaheen, the lottery's director. He said the lottery hasn't picked up on major trends in players, other than they are almost always employed.
In Charlotte, Dipak Desai manages the Ballantyne Amoco. When the Powerball jackpot reaches six figures, he said, the lottery clientele changes.
In August, the last time the jackpot spiked, Desai's store had the 11th highest sales in the state — $32,794.
His regular lottery players are working-class customers, clerks and delivery crews and people with tool belts. When there's a big jackpot, he said, the suits come in to play.
"When the jackpot gets bigger," Desai said, "everybody becomes a player."
Source: News & Observer, Lottery Post Staff
