LOTTERY BUYING BEHAVIOUR IN SINGAPORE: A DEMOGRAPHIC AND PSYCHOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS

Abstract

Despite the recession, Singaporeans spent a record of more than $4 billion in 1999 on the two major legalized gambling activities in Singapore - lottery and horse betting. More than half of this sales amount was attributed to the lottery, reflecting the popularity of lottery products amongst Singaporeans. This study aims to profile lottery purchasers along demographic and psychographic dimensions. Such an analysis would enable us to find out if there are any characteristics that lottery purchasers typically exhibit. A host of demographic and psychographic variables were examined in relation to buyers, light buyers and heavy buyers of lottery for this study. The demographic variables of interest were gender, age, marital status, race, educational level, occupation, income, type of residence and religion. For the psychographic analysis, personality traits and attitudes were investigated. They include the traits of materialism, self-esteem, venturesomeness, impulsiveness, compulsive buying and external locus of control, as well as attitudes towards lottery. It was found that heavier buyers of lottery tend to be male, older and married. They are also more likely to have lower educational levels and be Buddhists or Taoists. Interestingly, heavier buyers are found to be more likely to earn higher incomes. In addition to these, the results also revealed a difference between non buyers, light buyers and heavy buyers in terms of materialism, venturesomeness, impulsiveness, external locus of control and attitudes towards lottery. The findings of this study provide an insight into differences that exist among non buyers, light buyers and heavy buyers of lottery in terms of demographic and psychographic variables. The implications derived from this are potentially useful to marketers and public policy makers. The demographic and psychographic profiles aid in designing a marketing mix for the lottery games. The information obtained in this study can also be of interest to public policy makers in the prevention and treatment of any lottery-related gambling problems that these consumers may face.