Lottery most popular gambling category for Australians
10.6 million Australians aged 18+ (55.4%) gambled in the 12 months to June 2018, including 8.6 million (44.8%) who bought a lottery or scratchie ticket. While total gambling participants have declined over the last 15 years, lottery and scratchie tickets are leagues ahead of poker machines, betting, Keno, and casino table games when looking at participants.
Narrowing the focus to a more recent timeframe shows that over the last three years lottery and scratchie tickets have held their own with an unchanged 8.6 million Australians buying a lottery or scratchie ticket. However, this stability in participation hides movement in regards to the underlying lottery items.
Now 7.7 million Australians bought a lottery ticket of any sort in the year to June 2018 encompassing Monday/ Wednesday/ Saturday Lotto, Powerball, Oz Lotto or Other Lottery tickets, down from 7.9 million three years ago.
This decline was driven by a fall in Australians buying Monday/Wednesday/Saturday Lotto tickets, down 0.6 million to 5.7 million and fewer Australians buying Powerball tickets, down 0.2 million to 3.6 million.
In contrast more Australians are today buying OzLotto tickets, up 0.4 million to 3.3 million, and more Australians are buying Other Lottery tickets which includes Lotto Strike, Pools, Keno, Super 66 and Cash 3, up marginally by 0.1 million to 0.9 million.
Buying of scratchie tickets has also declined slightly over the last three years down 0.2 million to 3 million Australians in the year to June 2018.
These are the latest findings from the Roy Morgan ‘Gambling Currency Report’, from in-depth personal interviews conducted face-to-face with thousands of people in their own home. The Roy Morgan Single Source survey of over 50,000 Australians in the 12 months ended June 2018 included in-depth interviews with over 14,000 people who had gambled in the last three months.
Australians buying Lottery/Scratchies tickets in an average year: June 2015 cf. June 2018
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source Australia, July 2014-June 2015, n=15,241 & July 2017-June 2018, n=14,056. Base: Australians aged 18+.
Lottery & Scratchie tickets are favourites of Australians over 50
When it comes to buying lottery and scratchie tickets, the likelihood of having bought a lottery or scratchie ticket rises with age until peaking with Australians aged 50-64 years old. A similar pattern also exists for other forms of gambling such as playing keno or betting.
Over half of Australians aged 50-64 years old (55.6%) and aged 65+ years old (50.7%) buy lottery or scratchie tickets in an average three months.
In contrast only 12.6% of Australians aged 18-24 years old and 27.2% of Australians aged 25-34 years old buy lottery or scratchie tickets in an average three months. 39.2% of Australians aged 35-49 years old buy lottery or scratchie tickets which puts the group firmly in line with the national average of 39.9%.
Australians buying Lottery/Scratchie tickets in an average three months – June 2018
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia), July 2017 – June 2018. Base: Australians aged 18+, n=14,056.
WA & Queensland residents buy more Lottery/Scratchie tickets than other States
Analysing the buying of lottery and scratchie tickets by State reveals Western Australia and Queensland stand out with nearly half of Western Australians (48.6%) and clearly more than two-fifths of Queenslanders (43.2%) buying a lottery or scratchie ticket in an average three months – far higher results than for any other State.
The results from the Roy Morgan ‘Gambling Currency Report’ cover a very wide range of demographics across several different forms of gambling including Betting and Sports Betting, Casino Tables Games, Keno, Lotteries and Scratchie tickets and Poker Machines so as to enable a better understanding of the profile of participants in gambling.
Michele Levine, CEO, says buying lottery and scratchie tickets is the favoured gambling outlet for more Australians than any other but in-depth analysis of gambling habits show Australians tend not to ‘splurge’ on lottery tickets as they can for other forms of gambling:
“10.6 million Australians aged 18+ (55.4%) gambled in some way or another in the year to June 2018 and the favoured gambling activity was clearly buying lottery or scratchie tickets undertaken by 8.6 million Australians (44.8%).
“This participation rate far outstrips other forms of gambling such as betting, casino table games, keno and poker machines. However the spending patterns on lottery and scratchie tickets mean lottery and scratchie tickets take up only about 13% of Australians’ overall gambling spend – far below the proportion spent on poker machines (over 60%) and also below the proportion spent on betting which amounts to about 17% of gambling spend.
“Although overall participation rates for buying lottery and scratchie tickets have been fairly stable over the last three years, analysing the overall spending patterns in the category shows an increase of nearly 14% in total spending on lottery and scratchie tickets driven by increases in spending on Oz Lotto, Powerball, Other Lotteries and Scratchie tickets.
“Australians who buy each different type of lottery or scratchie ticket spend an average of over $100 annually on OzLotto, Powerball or on Monday Lotto tickets compared to under $100 spent annually on Wednesday Lotto, Saturday Lotto or on Scratchie tickets.
“These spending figures for different types of lottery and scratchie tickets are a fraction of the amount spent on poker machines by Australians who play poker machines which we explored in greater depth here.
“Clearly one of the biggest drivers of spending on lottery tickets is the prospect of huge jackpots of up to $100 million or more as seen recently for both OzLotto and Powerball. The prospect of a life-changing lotto win is massively enhanced and attracts Australians in droves in search of a lucky ticket. And judging by the analysis it is Australians over 50 years of age who seem to think they might be luckier than their younger peers!
“To gain deeper insights into what Australians like to gamble on, and more importantly, how much they are spending on gambling, the series of Roy Morgan Gambling Currency Reports are an essential analytical resource to learn more about Australian gamblers and punters.
“The Roy Morgan Gambling Currency Reports cover not only lotteries and scratchie tickets but also horse racing and sports betting, casino table games, keno and poker machines.”
For comments or more information please contact:
Roy Morgan - Enquiries
Office: +61 (03) 9224 5309
askroymorgan@roymorgan.com
Margin of Error
The margin of error to be allowed for in any estimate depends mainly on the number of interviews on which it is based. Margin of error gives indications of the likely range within which estimates would be 95% likely to fall, expressed as the number of percentage points above or below the actual estimate. Allowance for design effects (such as stratification and weighting) should be made as appropriate.
| Sample Size | Percentage Estimate |
| 40% – 60% | 25% or 75% | 10% or 90% | 5% or 95% | |
| 1,000 | ±3.0 | ±2.7 | ±1.9 | ±1.3 |
| 5,000 | ±1.4 | ±1.2 | ±0.8 | ±0.6 |
| 7,500 | ±1.1 | ±1.0 | ±0.7 | ±0.5 |
| 10,000 | ±1.0 | ±0.9 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 |
| 20,000 | ±0.7 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 |
| 50,000 | ±0.4 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 | ±0.2 |
