Why don lottery games appeal to problem gamblers?
Problem gamblers are attracted to games for a variety of reasons. One is a sense of high excitement, usually involving considerable sensory stimulation. Lottery tickets do not provide this. A second factor is a sense of mastery or skill. Lotteries have no skill element. A third is the immediacy of the result and reward and the ability to play repeatedly and quickly. Numbers game drawings typically take place some time after the purchase is made, and players have to wait between a day and a week to play again, making chasing losses difficult. Even instant or scratch tickets have much less immediacy than other forms of gambling. The outlets at which they are sold are not conducive to repeated play, and a player with a winning ticket must return to the convenience store, stand in line, and wait for the clerk to validate the ticket before beginning the process anew. It’s quite different from pulling the slot machine handle and watching the coins come out (or not come out).
