[Updated] Where have all the young gamblers gone?
The nation’s “education lotteries” may have succeeded too well for the gaming industry, Tony Cartledge suggests:
I’m intrigued by the finding that the 18-24 year age group gambles least of all, and wondered why. Maybe they still remember enough math to understand why playing the lottery is like investing with Bernie Madoff. Maybe it’s because they have less disposable income, or dispose more of it on things that lead to more immediate gratification. Maybe it’s because they know they can fall back on their parents, and don’t yet feel the desperation that fuels gambling by some older adults and makes the lottery such a predator on the poor.
Read the rest here.
Addundum
For the full gaming industry study referred to, visit Frost&Sullivan and from the link at the bottom of that page, download the full .pdf.
You will find that study’s age-group data is taken from a second study, which is apparently only summarized online.
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There is no longitudinal data with this story, so we don’t know if 18-24yos are playing the lottery more or less than in previous times. I’m going to guess that the rate is rather static. I also wonder that when 18-24yo’s gamble, they prefer to do it in a social setting, poker, casinos, etc. And since they have fewer family obligations, they may prefer those more time-consuming social forms. They don’t need the quick ‘pick-up-the-ticket’ at the local convince store, in fact that may be less entertaining for them.
Also I think you have something with the desperation angle. A good bit of gambling IMHO is an attempt to make up for lack of saving, whether for immediate use or to create a nest-egg that doesn’t exist. Older folks worry about such things; 18-24yo are just beginning to see income come in, for most a worrying about a nest-egg or need for large amounts of cash hasn’t happened yet.
There is indeed no longitudinal data in the underlying Frost&Sullivan study [full .pdf here], nor apparently in the study upon which the Frost&Sullivan report relies for that age-group data.