N.J. lottery sales go up as income goes down
Judy DeHaven and Rob Gebeloff of The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger analyzed five years of lottery data by ZIP code, obtained through the state’s Open Public Records Act, and found that lottery revenues rose as incomes fell. "This was particularly true for its bread-and-butter money-makers — the Pick 3 and Pick 4 drawings and instant games." The investigation found that per-capita ticket sales were much higher in lower-income ZIP codes. In communities with average household incomes that were below $52,000, the lottery sold an average of $250 of tickets per person annually. That was more than double the amount for ZIP codes with $100,000 households. Using minutes of meetings in the last five years, it was also found that faced with unprecedented budget shortfalls, state officials were pressuring the lottery to grow.
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