My Oh My, Lottery Ticket Sales on the Rise! You Won’t Believe This!

Where Are the Lottery Sales Coming from?

According to the WorldLotteries.org, lottery sales rose 9.9% in 2014. You may be wondering where the lottery sales are coming from. You might think that the sales are predominately coming from Europe or the United States, but you would be surprised. This growth is mostly attributed to sales from Latin America and Asia Pacific regions, whose sales have hit double-digit growth in sales in six quarters. So what does this mean? Are more people pouring their hard earned money into the lottery in hopes of winning copious amounts of money? Well, of course!

In Latin America, Argentina’s Lotería Nacional Sociedad del Estado is credited with a 26.8 % increase of sales while Brazil’s Caixa Econômica Federal saw an 18.5% increase in sales within twelve months. In the Asian Pacific regions saw steady growth over the past year, with sales growing by 15.6%–most of this stems from mainland Chinese lottery games. In fact, during the 20th FIFA World Cup, which was held in Brazil from June 12 to July 13, 2014, sports betting saw an incredible 32.8% increase during this time.

European Lotteries on the Rise

Let’s not be hasty and forget European lotteries! Although the increase is not nearly as high as we saw in the Asian Pacific and the Latin American lotteries, there was a 5.1% increase in sales during the past year. Now, you would think that Western Europe would drive the lottery sales in the region, but surprisingly enough, Eastern and Central Europe saw a significant increase of sales—upward to 24.8%, as seen in Hungary’s Szerencsejáték Zrt. Greece even saw a 14.8 % increase in revenues within the last year.

African Lotteries Boast Modest Increases

When you think of global lotteries, African countries get little to no recognition. Be that as it may, the Lottery Authority for Ghana reported an astounding 21% increase in 2014, while Morocco’s La Marcaine des Jeux saw an 11.9% increase and the Mauritian National Lottery saw sales jump by 6.6%.

North American Lotteries Slow Incline

Compared to other nations around the world, North American lotteries have seen an increase in sales, but not nearly as significant as you may think. As a whole, there was only a mere. A 4 % increase in sales in 2014, even though the GDP has risen by 2.4%, which is reported to be the highest full-year growth since 2010. Why California lottery sales saw the highest increase of 6%.

You may be wondering why the US hasn’t had as much growth as the rest of the world. It could be because one of the most massive lottery games in the country, Powerball, has seen a decline in sales—a staggering 19% decline over the past year. This could be partly because the game has not had substantial jackpots; only one jackpot has reached over $400 million within 2014.

Lottery for the Future

Although many people say that the global economy is experiencing a lull and that many countries are facing financial difficulties, you wouldn’t know it by looking at lottery sales. Could this mean that, even though people are experiencing rough times financially, they are still lingering onto the hope that the lottery is their saving grace? Who knows… One thing that remains certain is that when people are feeling lucky, they may throw that extra dollar or two into the lottery.