IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/coecpo/v37y2019i2p261-273.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effects Of Lotto Game Changes And Large Jackpots On Income Elasticities And Sales

Author

Listed:
  • Kathryn L. Combs
  • John A. Spry

Abstract

Using daily lottery data from Washington State by zip code from January 2011 through mid‐March 2016, we estimate that Powerball income elasticities range from −0.16 to 0.16 as the Powerball jackpot increases from its minimum to $1.5 billion, while Mega Millions income elasticities range from −0.08 to 0.03 as the Mega Millions jackpot increases from its minimum to $640 million. Controlling for jackpot size, each of three major game changes during this time period has a significant effect on own‐game and cross‐game sales. Despite these significant game changes, however, these lotto games are a highly regressive source of revenue for Washington State. (JEL H22, H71, L83)

Suggested Citation

  • Kathryn L. Combs & John A. Spry, 2019. "The Effects Of Lotto Game Changes And Large Jackpots On Income Elasticities And Sales," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 37(2), pages 261-273, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:37:y:2019:i:2:p:261-273
    DOI: 10.1111/coep.12393
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/coep.12393
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/coep.12393?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ann Hansen, 1995. "The Tax Incidence of the Colorado State Lottery Instant Game," Public Finance Review, , vol. 23(3), pages 385-398, July.
    2. Price, Donald I. & Novak, E. Shawn, 1999. "The Tax Incidence of Three Texas Lottery Games: Regressivity, Race, and Education," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 52(4), pages 741-752, December.
    3. Garrett, Thomas A. & Sobel, Russell S., 1999. "Gamblers favor skewness, not risk: Further evidence from United States' lottery games," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 85-90, April.
    4. Ghent, Linda S. & Grant, Alan P., 2010. "The Demand for Lottery Products and Their Distributional Consequences," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 63(2), pages 253-268, June.
    5. Kathryn L. Combs & John A. Spry, 2012. "Who plays the numbers games in the middle of the day?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(7), pages 889-897, March.
    6. Rose Baker & David Forrest & Levi Perez, 2016. "Modelling regional lottery sales: Methodological issues and a case study from Spain," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95, pages 127-142, March.
    7. Garrett, Thomas A. & Marsh, Thomas L., 2002. "The revenue impacts of cross-border lottery shopping in the presence of spatial autocorrelation," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 501-519, July.
    8. Oster, Emily, 2004. "Are All Lotteries Regressive? Evidence From the Powerball," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 57(2), pages 179-187, June.
    9. Price, Donald I. & Novak, E. Shawn, 1999. "The Tax Incidence of Three Texas Lottery Games: Regressivity, Race, and Education," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 52(n. 4), pages 741-52, December.
    10. Thomas A. Garrett, 2016. "The (Aggregate) Demand For State-Lottery Tickets: What Have We Really Learned?," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 34(3), pages 475-482, July.
    11. Brian Knight & Nathan Schiff, 2012. "Spatial Competition and Cross-Border Shopping: Evidence from State Lotteries," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 4(4), pages 199-229, November.
    12. Lee, Sukhun & Han, Ki C & Suk, David & Sung, Hyunmo, 2016. "Analysis Of Large Mega Millions Rollovers," Journal of Gambling Business and Economics, University of Buckingham Press, vol. 10(1), pages 66-86.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Forrest, David & Kainulainen, Tuomo & Saastamoinen, Jani & Suhonen, Niko, 2022. "Income elasticity of demand for horse wagering — Large-scale evidence from online betting accounts," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    2. Ege Can & Mark W. Nichols, 2022. "The Income Elasticity of Gross Sports Betting Revenues in Nevada: Short-Run and Long-Run Estimates," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 23(2), pages 175-199, February.
    3. Alejandro Díaz & Levi Pérez, 2021. "Setting The Odds Of Winning The Jackpot: On The Economics Of (Re) Designing Lottery Games," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 39(1), pages 168-177, January.
    4. Álvaro Muñiz & Levi Pérez, 2023. "The market for EuroMillions: jackpot sharing and implicit transfer of funds among countries," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 40(3), pages 817-833, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Garrett, Thomas A. & Coughlin, Cletus C., 2009. "Inter–Temporal Differences in the Income Elasticity of Demand for Lottery Tickets," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 62(1), pages 77-99, March.
    2. Thomas A. Garrett & Natalia A. Kolesnikova, 2010. "Local price variation and the tax incidence of state lotteries," Working Papers 2010-035, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    3. Thomas A. Garrett, 2011. "A closer look at the tax incidence of instant lottery games: an analysis by price point," Working Papers 2011-010, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    4. Luke P. Rodgers, 2020. "Don’t Tax My Dreams: The Lottery Sales Response to Gambling Tax Changes," Public Finance Review, , vol. 48(5), pages 627-649, September.
    5. Celeste K. Carruthers & Kara D. Smith, 2020. "Are “Education Lotteries” Less Regressive? Evidence from Texas," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 86(3), pages 1019-1040, January.
    6. Rose Baker & David Forrest & Levi Perez, 2016. "Modelling regional lottery sales: Methodological issues and a case study from Spain," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95, pages 127-142, March.
    7. Cletus C. Coughlin & Thomas A. Garrett, 2008. "Income and lottery sales: transfers trump income from work and wealth," Working Papers 2008-004, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    8. Luca Gandullia & Lucia Leporatti, 2019. "Distributional effects of gambling taxes: empirical evidence from Italy," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 17(4), pages 565-590, December.
    9. Kent Grote & Victor Matheson, 2011. "The Economics of Lotteries: An Annotated Bibliography," Working Papers 1110, College of the Holy Cross, Department of Economics.
    10. Richard A. Dunn & Michael A. Trousdale, 2015. "Estimating the Demand for Lottery Gambling," Public Finance Review, , vol. 43(6), pages 691-716, November.
    11. Ghent, Linda S. & Grant, Alan P., 2010. "The Demand for Lottery Products and Their Distributional Consequences," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 63(2), pages 253-268, June.
    12. Humphreys, Brad & Perez, Levi, 2011. "Lottery Participants and Revenues: An International Survey of Economic Research on Lotteries," Working Papers 2011-17, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    13. Cletus C. Coughlin & Thomas A. Garrett, 2009. "Income and Lottery Sales," Public Finance Review, , vol. 37(4), pages 447-469, July.
    14. Linda S. Ghent & Alan P. Grant, 2007. "Are Voting and Buying Behavior Consistent? Evidence from the South Carolina Education Lottery," Public Finance Review, , vol. 35(6), pages 669-688, November.
    15. Kathryn L. Combs & John A. Spry, 2012. "Who plays the numbers games in the middle of the day?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(7), pages 889-897, March.
    16. Horácio Faustino & Maria João Kaiseler & Rafael Marques, 2009. "Why Do People Buy Lottery Products?," Working Papers Department of Economics 2009/01, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, Department of Economics, Universidade de Lisboa.
    17. Madhusmita Bhadra & Doyeon Kim, 2023. "Income elasticity of demand and stock market beta," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 225-240, August.
    18. Kent Grote & Victor Matheson, 2011. "The Economics of Lotteries: A Survey of the Literature," Working Papers 1109, College of the Holy Cross, Department of Economics.
    19. Álvaro Muñiz & Levi Pérez, 2023. "The market for EuroMillions: jackpot sharing and implicit transfer of funds among countries," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 40(3), pages 817-833, October.
    20. Glenn P. Jenkins & Chun-Yan Kuo, 2004. "The Taxation and Regulation of Casino’s and Games of Chance in the Dominican Republic," Development Discussion Papers 2004-07, JDI Executive Programs.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H22 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Incidence
    • H71 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:37:y:2019:i:2:p:261-273. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/weaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.