Young Americans are showing less interest in buying lotto tickets than their parents, prompting lottery officials to worry about the odds for future growth.
While overall ticket sales rose 9 percent last year versus 2015, the number of millennials — adults in their late teens to early 30s — who play is falling.
That is creating consternation among leaders of the industry, which generates $80 billion in annual revenue, more than the combined U.S. sales of movie tickets, music and concerts.
"I feel like everything's just too expensive nowadays to just kind of throw away your money on luck," Melissa Mancilla, a 21-year-old hotel worker, said outside a downtown Los Angeles convenience store.
Andrew Hunter, a 26-year-old who works in software, said he does not buy lottery tickets, but his grandmother does.
"If I was going to bet money for entertainment it would probably be on sports betting versus lottery, just because it's more interactive," he said after leaving the same store.
Only a third of Americans aged 18 to 29 said they played the lottery in the past year, compared with 61 percent for those aged 50 to 64, according to a 2016 Gallup survey.
The rate for millennials fell from 39 percent in surveys conducted in 2003 and 2007, Gallup said. For all other age groups, the likelihood of playing went up over the past decade.
"Most millennials don't want to wait two days to see if they won the Powerball. They consume entertainment content just much faster than consumers did 20 years ago," said Charles McIntyre, executive director of the New Hampshire Lottery.
"We're not broke, we're just at the inflection point where a failure to change will have a steep decline over time."
'Next generation players'
Lottery officials say they are limited by laws in many states that were aimed at preventing compulsive gambling and ban the sale of lotto tickets online or via payment with credit cards.
The Virginia Lottery has tried to make things easier for players in an increasingly cashless society by allowing debit card purchases, said its executive director, Paula Otto. Other states are making similar changes, she said.
"The next generation of lottery players grew up with technology and approach making purchases and playing games differently," Otto said in an email.
Lotteries provide more than $20 billion a year to states for programs including education and military veterans.
All but six U.S. states have a lottery, and they use the proceeds in different ways, such as supplemental funding or poured directly into a state's general fund.
In California, the most populous U.S. state, most lottery proceeds are used for one-time expenses by public schools, such the purchase of library materials. A decrease in lottery sales would mean less money for those supplemental materials but would not result in program cutbacks, said California Lottery spokesman Russ Lopez.
Despite record jackpots, millennials used to the almost-instant gratification of online games and social media are put off by having to wait for the drawing of a winning ticket. Experts say they are also more risk-averse than their elders.
"This is a generation that came of age in the recession," said MaryLeigh Bliss, 33-year-old chief content officer for Ypulse, a marketing and research firm focused on millennials.
Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Illinois, New York state and Virginia allow online sales on lottery games to at least some degree.
In 2011, the U.S. Justice Department said proposals in Illinois and New York to allow online lotto sales did not violate federal law. The industry is now looking to see if President Donald Trump's new U.S. attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who opposed the move, could reconsider that decision.
Another strategy that lottery officials are exploring to appeal to millennials is designing prizes that also include a social component, such as VIP access to a concert.
"They want an experience, not just a prize," said Rose Hudson, president of the North American Association of State & Provincial Lotteries.
A sign that the Cost of Living (Taxes) is too High!
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Yeah it is. But also, it's the over-population that we see, have seen and have yet to see, which has caused the
"lotto-powers-that-be" to increase the already impossible odds on the 2 main games we play.
With the ever increasing India-scaled over-population our planet sees, comes that much more greed.
I've urged people, and still do, to start wearing protection. But they refuse, laugh, and continue to have kids like rats. We'll see. This is also why I turn down any pan handlers on the streets that should come up to me, bumming change.
Food shortages in the USA could be a very real threat.
So, playing lotto these days would turn me off too, if I was in that earlier age group that the article mentions, and if I've blown the money I have.
Or simply that they understand the odds better than their parents do and they're not relying on gambling to attain wealth. In either case it's not about taxes. Especially since on these current taxes, their parents are purchasing an increased number of tickets.
One of the main challenges I see for the lotteries in attracting millennials is their unbearable snarkiness and blind following of their social media heroes. They are so afraid of independent thought and analysis that once their social network derides an idea like the lottery (they don't debate, they deride), it is nearly impossible to get a millennial to step out on their own and make an independent decision. So afraid to be different, yet claiming to be just that.
Of course I'm stating generalities here, but generalities are what marketers look at.
I agree with all the comments but I also believe the lotteries are deflecting blame for their own poor management.
IMHO
If they can't play online using their smart phones, they aren't interested!!
Maybe the politicians will wake up and realize that many potential lottery gamblers can't drive anymore, or have stopped going to the store for a host of reasons.
Cost and taxes don't have anything to do with it.
I'm hoping that Texas politicians now in session are smart enough to see that adopting online play is their only option.
Be a shame if we have to wait another two years.
You make a very valid point. I am 75, I graduated high school at 17, in 1959. Raised by a sharecropper, stepped out into the world with confidence. There are people 40 and below, who don't know what the words obligations and responsibilities mean. They can't think for themselves, still depending on mom and dad to take care of them. How do they expect to exist, when mom and dad die? I believe the majority of them are Liberals.
I would never blame State Lotteries, which have contributed to numerous FABULOUS times in my life! I have won more times in DC and Maryland than I can even recall. On MLK day in 2005, I hit 4444 for $15,000 and $5,000 on 2222! A typical win for me is $1,200 two to three times a month.
I have since left the DC/Maryland area and continue to play state lotteries wherever I travel.
I arrived in Texas in August 2012, and by year end I had won $14,600! I won $3,600 in Tennessee, $1,500 in Missouri, $1,250 in Rhode Island. Yes, Rhode Island! $1,200 in West Virginia, $1,200 in Virginia. I could go on and on, but I gotta go play my numbers!
They internet lotteries have to offer both options store and the Internet!
So true.
It's because they're lazy, good for nothing, entitled!!
What celebrities have campaigned against playing the lottery? If I recall, when the jackpot hit a billion or 600 million a few years back, people like Ellen were giving tickets away. An NBA player bought 10's of thousands. People viewed it positively! Everyone young and old was playing
I see your points, I think, CARBOB. Many people born after 1976 are living at home. Their parents/guardians are going to the grocery store and gas station to get the weekly replenishments. I presume that the majority of lottery ticket sales are made to these older generous multi-taskers.
I also think that many adults under 35 are questioning their older, regular weekly lottery ticket buying acquaintances. This questioning leads the younger to understand that their acquantances' past 25-30 year results have been a leading loss of approximately $450/year. They therefore decide not to develop their older acquaintances chronically depressing habit of long-term losses.
My guess is a realization of how long the odds are and therefore play accordingly, an understanding that they are still young and control their destiny in life whereas a lot of older people see at as the only way they will get rich in their remaining years.
I never played the lottery in my 20's. I thought it was a waste of money. I was always amused when my granny spent a dollar on her weekly pb ticket. She would get the bonus # very often.
Once I could put some effort into it and read all the stories online and past numbers, my attitude changed.
Heard on some crime documentary that mafia gambling was so popular because they had better odds than casinos.
Do people still play "the numbers"
Millennials listen to the media and think about what messages the media has been sending these last few years with the poor odds of winning
I would like to see online play also, but Texas is very conservative. And don't forget that there are politicians in Austin that are very anti-lottery, and would love to abolish the lottery. So, I think the online idea is not going to happen for a long, long time, if ever here in the Lone Star state.
My 3 kids know I play regularly, and they think I just waste my money. Well, I probably do. But it is my entertainment. My oldest is 35 and when I visit her in Odessa, I'll go out to buy tix, and she just shakes her head and says "Dad, you and your lottery". Kinda like I would scold her when she was little. LOL.
You're not paying attention then. The lottery is frequently and regularly derided by the celebrity types who think they're so smart. Case in point is the video I actually made an appearance in, by John Oliver. The same old rubbish about how the lottery is a "tax on the poor" and other jingoistic falsehoods.
The fact that some celebrities play the lottery when the jackpot gets high is testament to their hypocrisy, not an endorsement of lotteries. The primary motivation for people like Ellen is to boost their ratings because the people she normally looks down on for playing the lottery will tune into her show that features the popular lottery game that all the normal people are playing. If you think Ellen is stopping by the 7-11 every morning to pick up some Pick 3 tickets, you're sadly mistaken.
I'm not saying that Ellen (or other celebrities) are all bad because of this. I am referring strictly to their views about the lottery, so hopefully you don't feel like I am attacking your favorite TV host or movie star. My mention of celebrities was because they generally hold very anti-lottery views, and millennials blindly follow the leads of these somewhat rudderless members of society.
I agree with Todd in the sense that it does not help anybody to criticize things that people do. No one knows what goals people have who play the lottery. What benefit does it offer to say something negative or put down someone who plays. I think that thats no good. And people who do that should try do something else. like the opposite in fact. Negativity breeds negativity, so those people are just trying to convince everyone that they are right.
And for the fact is, the lotteries of all states should be worried. Their payouts suck. Period. Excuse my French. But seriously, they do period.
When someone can't even pull in $40 in 30 days guessing, and the lotteries are making over $25 million in a month, well it ain't hard to figure out, is it? Anyways, I am not talking about myself btw, but in general.
LOL! I hear ya. But when I do win my youngest and I are dancing and singing boom shaka laka! Lol. Plus she thinks I'm a genius. Lol. Best of luck to you.
That's not a generality, that's just wrong.
If it wasn't for the selfish, lazy, stupid brats called "Baby boomers" and "GenX", then we wouldn't need to struggle as hard as we are.
To quote an ignorant, foolish, misguided, lying young man who thinks he's entitled to a free ride through life:
"That's not a generality, that's just wrong."
I don't know about other LP posters, but once in a blue moon I'll frequent several different state lottery sites. Like looking @ the pictures and how much they've won. Seems to me there a quite a few millenials that win the lottery and many have been featured on LP just as recent as three weeks there was an 18 year old from MA.
He is not even qualified to work at a fast food restaurant. He lives in his parents basement and waits for them to die so he will own something.
I agree Carbob. It seems the ones under 40 or even 50 were also never taught basic money management skills. We have several people in my office who are divorced but they bought homes first by cashing out their retirement accounts and did not have at least a year in emergency savings when they bought homes. So when an emergency arose or a marriage broke up, they lost their homes and have major debt in addition to student loans. There really is no excuse, especially for well educated professionals. But these people still eat out 2-3 times a day and whine about their debt.
I did without a car for 4 years when I finished school and brought my lunch every day to work in order to buy a home.And I still do most days!
Many Millennials are up to their eyeballs in student loan debt. First time homebuyers is what drives the health of the housing market, and many Millennials are opting to rent then buy becuase they can't even save up money for a down payment for house, furthermore many are choosing to use public transportation rather then own a car. The Millennials are basically Generation Broke!