Lottery Spending: A Non-Parametric Analysis

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Ryan Garibaldi, Emory University; Kayla Frisoli, UCLA, Los Angeles; Li Ke, UCLA, Los Angeles; Melody Lim, UCLA, Los Angeles
• Language: English
• Date: 2015-02-02
• Publisher: Public Library of Science
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2015 Garibaldi et al.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0115730
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: PLoS ONE
• ISSN: 1932-6203
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 2
• Start Page: e0115730
• End Page: e0115730
• Grant/Funding Information: The authors have no support or funding to report.
• Keywords: Survey; United States; Demographic factors; non-parametric; Lottery
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Public Health; Psychology, Behavioral

Abstract

We analyze the spending of individuals in the United States on lottery tickets in an average month, as reported in surveys. We view these surveys as sampling from an unknown distribution, and we use non-parametric methods to compare properties of this distribution for various demographic groups, as well as claims that some properties of this distribution are constant across surveys. We find that the observed higher spending by Hispanic lottery players can be attributed to differences in education levels, and we dispute previous claims that the top 10% of lottery players consistently account for 50% of lottery sales.