20 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • MARCH/APRIL 2024 35% of 18-34 year old Americans have never bought a Powerball ticket. That’s even with a $2bn Powerball jackpot less than 16 months ago. Yet more than 50% of the same age group has placed at least one bet on sports in their lifetime. In fact, past year sports betting among the youngest age group is now at 37%, just 3% points behind their annual play of Mega Millions. This is just one of the major trends happening within the 47 Lottery jurisdictions in the United States of America right now of which the data is based. TikTokToe. The future players have very strong App-etites. If you think these 18-34 year-olds are too busy watching YouTube videos and Instagram Reels…then you would be correct. Instagram is now this youngest group’s second most popular social media app, with more than 72% using it frequently, closely behind the 76% using YouTube. According to my teenage boys Ethan and Ashton, Insta “Reels” is where it’s at. TikTok comes in a strong 4th place at just short of three out of five youngsters in the Millennial/Gen Z crossover age group, a little behind Facebook still at 67% (which is still where a majority of 35-54 year-olds spend their time). However, the endless time spent staring at their devices doesn’t preclude the 18-34 year-olds from actively gaming on their iPhones and Androids. Au contraire, 32% claim to have played some type of Lottery game online since early 2023, whilst 31% has gambled online (with Casino style game) in the past year, significantly higher than the 35-54 year old age group (who are still at impressive 29%). Fantasy sports still remain prominent in the portfolios of the younger gamer, with almost a third having played in at least one league annually, whether it be Fantasy Football, Baseball or even Basketball (and a note to you dear reader, I play them all!). Not everyone has Very Little Tolerance for those ‘games of skill’ This is not to say that other forms of gaming and gambling that entail the player actually leaving their house, bedroom or even basement, aren’t thriving. 13% of Americans have played standalone Video Lottery Terminals (VLTs) in the past year, while 18% claim to have played a Video terminal/Skill machine, which are one of the many banes of existence for the Lottery industry. Both these skew slightly younger, but 24% of that all important 35-54 year-old age group has also chanced their arm at the “skill” machines. Casino visits are also getting back close to pre-COVID levels, which saw past year visits as low as in the early 20% range in 2021, and are now above 38%, driven primarily by both 35-54 year olds (44%) and the Hispanic population (46%). Eyes down for a full house in the Bingo renaissance. The biggest discrepancy in terms of the gender breakouts is the 37% of women who have played Bingo in the past year, significantly higher (some 9% points) than their male counterparts. Contrary to the Bingo in what my mother would classify as “the good old days”, Bingo has become a young person’s game, with almost half of all 18-34 Americans to have played some form of it in the past year. Bingo is also a fond past time of African Americans (41%) and EXAMINING THE GAME PLAYING AND SOCIAL TRENDS OF AMERICANS Simon Jaworski, Founder & CEO, Lotto Research
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