I have spoken with several lottery retailers in Chicago over the last two days about the Powerball jackpot. With outlets on almost every street in downtown purchasing is easy – they are not experiencing the long lines of a massive Australian jackpot. That said, I know in other cities the situation is different.
Traffic is way up and plenty are making massive purchases – hundreds of dollars at a time. The retailers seem bemused by the surge.
I have not seen any noticeable in-store changes to leverage the additional traffic. Also, there is no upset for other products at the lottery counter or no upset for the lottery at the regular counter.
The differences in engagement are a result in lotteries being available from more locations and not easily available online – an that lottery traffic is incidental to the businesses whereas for many newsagents it is key.
Mark you may want to read this. There is a new player in the Lottery business and Australians can now play International Lotteries without leaving the country…http://www.afr.com/brand/chanticleer/lottolands-uber-moment-for-lotteries-disrupts-tatts-winning-streak-20160113-gm586j
Mark I have looked into the model. The thing is you are not purchasing tickets in overseas lotteries, you are purchasing a bet. It is disruptive of the lottery model for sure – but I have no view yet on how it will fare.