Are we spoiled for choice when it comes to lottery draws?
In almost every gaming jurisdiction you can find multiple lottery games. From country-wide progressive mega jackpots to state or provincial regional lotteries, there are many lottery games to choose from for us to play each week. And with so many games, is it easy to choose what we want to play or are there so many options that the lottery field is finally saturated with so many lotteries that now there are too many on the market?
Are we spoiled for choice?
In each gambling jurisdiction, the amount of available lottery games provided by the operator are certainly not few and far between. For instance, take any jurisdiction out there and look at the number of lottery games they offer. There are both country-wide and state/provincial lotteries. There are 6/49 and 7/50 type games. There are cash for life and bonus purchase games. You will find Keno style games, and smaller games that require the player to match only two, three, or four numbers to win prizes from $100 to $5000 dollars, and all these lottery games are popular.
Opponents of having so many games available from one lottery jurisdiction point out that the availability of so many games is confusing for the gaming public. The thought is that some players will feel pressured that they have to play every style of lottery game to cover their chances of winning anything at all, and this could lead to severe gambling addictions. The operator is not just trying to bring in money for the top popular games, but wants to bring in as much income as possible on every game. So offering so many different games to play, players will obviously spend more money to play more games for more chances to win.
On the other side of the issue, many of those who promote the idea of many different lottery games available, look at it a different way. Just like in a retail environment, having many types of lottery games is providing a varied selection of game play at different levels of cost. So if one person does not want to spend five dollars on a 7/50 type of game to win tens of millions of dollars, they can play a match two numbers game for fifty cents to win one hundred dollars instead. No one is forcing a player to spend money. Players are the sole decision maker of whether they buy a lottery ticket or not. Therefore a variety of gaming offerings is beneficial to players to cater to their various needs and wants.
There are lots of lotteries to play
Whatever side you are on, it is apparent that many types of lottery games are available to play. And that’s the thing; there are many lottery games to play. Is it fair to offer so many games that players have a hard time choosing which games they actually want to play, or is it just business marketing that provides a wide number of lottery games at various ticket prices to appease players of many backgrounds and budgets?
When looking at both sides it is hard to lean one way or another when taking everything into consideration and context. Yes the industry is over-saturated with lottery games, but these games provide a wide variety of options to widest market of lottery players. It is similar to a fast-food restaurant. Should there be seven different types of hamburgers and three different varieties of french fries, or should there be just one type of hamburger and one type of fries for sales and customer consistency?
This is a subject that will continue to be debated for a long time. What should you do? Probably the best thing is to play only the games that interest you the most. You might play a country-wide game and a state/provincial game. You might just be interested in a regular “income” that you need not worry about and play a cash for life style game. Or if you don’t want to spend more than fifty cents on the lottery, why not try for a hundred dollar prize? You don’t have to play every lottery game that is offered. Only play the ones that actually speak to your desires.