Of the many things to cut back on during the recession, you might think lotto tickets would be among the first to go.
Au contraire.
In January, the Missouri Lottery pushed back the close of lottery sales from 6:45 p.m. to 8:59 p.m. Now, St. Louisans have more time to spend those paychecks on Pick 3 cards after work.
At least one local expert is not surprised.
“In a recession, lottery sales usually go up,” explains Romel Mostafa, visiting assistant professor of strategy at Washington University, whose research recently found that people are more apt to purchase lotto tickets myopically, rather than weighing the long-term investment. “In late 2008 and early 2009, lottery sales actually fell—people were cutting back on all kinds of purchases. Now it’s back to prerecession levels, so it bounced back much quicker than other industries.”
