Does a huge Lotto Max jackpot raise the potential for problem gambling? Experts weigh in

Millions of Canadians will throw in $5 on Tuesday to win the $80 million Lotto Max jackpot.

It’s a staggering top prize, one with an equally staggering one-in-33 million chance of winning it.

Since it started in 2009, Lotto Max has been the “big win” lottery game in Canada with massive jackpots in exchange for a more expensive $5 bill. Lotto 6/49, by comparison, costs $3 per game.

Nigel Turner, a scientist at the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), said these are the kinds of prizes that have the potential to entice even non-regular gamblers to buy a ticket .

“The psychology of lotteries is ‘eyes on the prize,'” he said. “It’s about getting them to think about what will happen if they win. The bigger the prize, the bigger the dream.”

Ontario’s Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) makes no secret of the fact that it sells dreams. A scripted ad campaign features a “dream coach” who suddenly appears to counsel lottery players as they daydream about how they would spend the winnings if they actually won. The dream coach repeatedly asks them to improve their winning fantasy, in one example by upgrading dreams of a summer house to a sprawling villa. The slogan of the ad is “dream to the maximum”.

So can that dream turn into a problem game?

Turner said research shows that lottery games such as Lotto Max and Lotto 6/49 are not typically the type of games embraced by problem gamblers.

“In general, lotteries are the least problematic form of gambling,” he said.

He said this is because lotteries do not offer enough personal control over the outcome. The wait between draws also lacks the quick fire results of a slot machine simulator on a smartphone app.

“It’s not favorable by any means, but relatively speaking, when you consider the huge number of people who buy lottery tickets – which is over 60 percent of the population – the percentage of people who have a serious problem is small, Turner said.

As proof that lottery tickets are not without risk, Turner said he once interviewed a man who lost more than $80,000 playing the lottery. Turner said it was a trained financial accountant who mistakenly believed he had discovered trends in past lottery results that would increase his chances of winning.

“I can tell you that I’ve studied the numbers to see if there’s anything that can predict the next winner, and there isn’t,” Turner said.

Lotteries a gateway to ‘more problematic’ gambling

Jeffrey Derevensky, a retired professor who studied and wrote problem games at McGill University, agrees that lottery tickets are not the biggest problem when it comes to problem games. However, he said people who identify lottery games as their primary form of gambling account for eight per cent of calls to gambling helplines.

Derevensky said lotteries can become a gateway to more problematic forms of gambling.

“We know that the bigger the jackpot, the more likely people are to play the lottery,” Derevensky said. “And there is a group of players who gamble too much on the lotto.”

So what are the signs that buying lottery tickets may have gone from a bit of fun to a serious problem?

Turner identifies these three indicators:

• Bet more than you can afford: “The definition of having a problem is when you feel compelled to buy when you can’t afford it,” he said.
• Believing you are “deserved” to win: This happens when the player mistakenly believes that because they have lost a certain number of times, they are statistically more likely to win. “If you think you’re going to win, stop,” Turner said. “You’re never going to win because random chance doesn’t work like that.”
• Using the ‘big win’ dream as an escape from life’s problems: “If you start thinking that this dream of a big win is your escape from life, you have a problem,” Turner said.

If you think you need help

OLG offers these resources for anyone who thinks they may have a gambling problem.

Ontario’s Problem Gambling Helpline is 1-888-230-3505.