Public Interest in Veterans’ Lottery Tickets

Abstract

While many states earmark lottery proceeds for education programs, a few states have started allocating portions of lottery revenues toward state-provided services for military veterans. The decision to shift funds toward veterans’ services and away from other programs creates an opportunity to study society’s willingness to help veterans when faced with real trade-offs. Using county-level data from three states, I examined public interest in veterans’ lottery tickets by analyzing consumer and voter behaviors. In two states that sold veterans’ tickets, IA and TX, a similar set of county-level variables explained variation in both veterans’ and nonveterans’ ticket sales. However, there were a few cases in which sales patterns differed across ticket categories. Election results from a statewide referendum in MO to create a veterans’ lottery ticket suggested that opposition came from counties with a large proportion of college graduates and high population densities.