Research

Lottery research was once a quite interesting thing, and gave us a good insight into what lottery jackpot winners chose to do with their cash and where those winners came from in terms of their background.

But today it seems to me that the result of almost any ho-hum survey can be prefaced by the word “lottery” just to get a bigger readership, even if the topic of the survey has nothing to so with lotteries.

Most people who play lottery games on a regular basis do so because they like the idea of winning a jackpot. And because they like the idea of winning a jackpot, they also like to imagine what life would be like with several million pounds in the bank. If you have research results that tell me what kind of cars jackpot winners choose to drive and what kind of houses they tend to buy, count me in, because I find those things genuinely interesting. What I don’t find interesting is research into what lottery players prefer, because let’s face it, lottery players are the average men and women like you and me.

Consider the difference between “What cars lottery jackpot winners drive” and “What cars lottery players drive”. The former is a much more interesting topic of research because it tells us what kind of cars people choose when money is no object. Do they go for sports cars, limousines, or an experimental ecologically-friendly machine that is powered by banana skins? The latter topic of research, “What cars lottery players drive” might just as easily be titled, “What cars Mr and Mrs Average drive” because the fact that people play lottery games doesn’t really affect the cars they can afford right now.

Certain types of research into the habits of lottery players (as opposed to winners) can be useful, especially when it comes to things like monitoring problem gambling and finding out if more people from certain social groups are likely to play. But focusing a general study on “lottery players” rather than “the average person” is pointless.

Or is it? You see, I have a sneaking suspicion that prefacing a ho-hum study with something related to the lottery can be useful for one particular group of people, and that is the researchers themselves. Think about it – if you’re a researcher on a tight budget and you want funding, tacking “lottery” onto the title of your study might enable you to get what you need if you approach the right organisations.

Okay, so maybe I’m getting cynical in my old age, and maybe there are other people out there who really are interested to know what their fellow lottery players find attractive in the opposite sex, but I for one would prefer lottery research to focus on actual winners (like this one did) and genuine lottery-related topics (for example, do the majority pick their own numbers or use the Lucky Dip feature?) And I think I’ve now talked myself into a corner, because all of a sudden I really do want to know what other lottery players think about this subject.

Maybe I’d better go and try to get myself some funding of my own...

Article Last Updated: 10/11/2010 09:09:36

•Recent Lotto Blog Articles