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American Lotteries can be Tweaked to Generate Billions - 04-08-09 |
April 8 - In light of America's deepening recession, many financial experts (hopefully not the same ones that helped send the country plummeting into the economic doldrums to begin with) have suggested that states can 'tweak' their lottery programs to generate billions of dollars to top up their depleted coffers.
According to a recent lottery industry report, states across America that are suffering from substantial shortfalls to their budgets could stand to benefit from an extra $14 billion. They just have to tweak their respective lottery programs, by appealing to a new generation of lottery fans and increasing prize payouts.
The study, which was compiled by California-based consulting firm Frost and Sullivan from research conducted across 20 state lotteries, revealed that currently the most regular lottery players in the country are people 35-years-old and above, and that 18 to 24-year-olds are the demographic least likely to play.
As such, the study suggested that to increase their lottery revenues, states should look at new ways of converting these 18 to 24-year-olds into avid lottery fans. One state that has already cottoned onto this is Georgia, which runs one of America's biggest and most profitable lotteries as a result of increasing its sales.
Said president and CEO of the Georgia Lottery Corporation, Margaret DeFrancisco, 'We recognized the need to boost our lottery sales so we increased the number of our scratch games and payouts. We have used the additional revenue generated to help fund education scholarship as well as pre-K programs.'
According to DeFrancisco, over 2 million families throughout Georgia have benefitted from the additional revenues, and rising. 'We decided to be where the people are, so we installed lottery kiosks at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport a few years ago, which is now our No. 1 lottery retailer,' she said.
Currently there are 44 states (including the District of Columbia) that have lottery programs. Out of those, Massachusetts boasts the highest prize payout, with over 70 percent of sales going towards prizes. The study said that lotteries could benefit from discussions with the federal government to legalize online gambling.
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| | 2009/04/08 11:29:46 PM |
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