Features
Many Don't Consider Scratch Tickets as Gambling
Master's student says problem gamblers spend plenty on lottery and scratch tickets
BY RACHELLE COOPER
More than a third of the revenue from gambling in Ontario, or $2.3 billion, comes from ticket gambling, but many people don't consider buying tickets as gambling, says Katharine Papoff, a master's student in the Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition who is studying scratch tickets purchased by baby boomers.
“If they don't recognize themselves as gamblers, they won't consider excessive purchasing as problem gambling,” says Papoff, who interviewed counsellors working with recovering gamblers, who often have ticket-purchase problems. “Problem gambling is often associated with needing to chase a winning feeling, and we still don't know how that starts.”
Ticket-purchase gambling is so accessible and so affordable that most people see it as purchasing rather than gambling, she says.
“Problem gambling counsellors have told me that recovering ticket gamblers often can't get consumer goods like gas and milk because they can't go into a store without buying one or two or a dozen tickets.”
The 2002 Canadian Community Health Survey revealed that 26 per cent of baby boomers who admit to spending money on things like lottery tickets, instant win/scratch tickets and horse races say they aren't gamblers.
“This survey shows that a large chunk of the ‘not gambling' group buys tickets anywhere from daily to six times a week,” says Papoff, whose study is funded by the Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre and is being advised by U of G professor Scott Maitland and Joan Norris, graduate studies dean at Wilfrid Laurier University.
Unlike casino gamblers, ticket gamblers are virtually invisible. Yet 2004 research in Ontario found that 20 per cent of the $2 billion in revenue from ticket gambling is coming from problem gamblers, estimated to be five per cent of the population.
“People just don't see buying a ticket as a big expenditure, but the people who have a problem are obviously spending lots of money on lottery and scratch tickets,” says Papoff.
Not everyone who buys a ticket is going to have a problem with ticket gambling, she says. “But tickets have been called ‘paper slot machines' because they have features of slot machines that can promote problem gambling.”
Like slots, scratch tickets are inexpensive, there's a rapid turnover, and because you can immediately find out if you've won or lost, you can chase your losses by buying another ticket — in much the same way you pull the slot machine handle again, she says.
“There are many people who don't live near casinos or slot machines, so if they're looking for the thrill of a possible win, they're limited to tickets. I think there needs to be huge public awareness around the fact that this is something that's taking away your disposable income with virtually no odds of getting anything back.”