Poor spend more on the Lottery than the better off, says report

Poorer people play more and spend more on National Lottery games than the better off, a new report on the Lottery's socioeconomic impact has found.

People categorised as lower-middle class, skilled working class and unskilled or unemployed were "over-represented" among regular Lottery participants, the report, published yesterday by economic consultants DKM, said.

Regular players from these categories also spend more per week compared to farmers and upper-middle-class individuals who were regular players, a regular player being defined as someone who said they bought a ticket in the previous week.

Mr Colm McCarthy, managing director of DKM, said that when people's incomes were taken into account the proportional spend by poor people was much greater than the rich.

Regular players from lower categories spend an avereage of £4.56 a week on Lottery games. This compares to £3.90 a week among regular upper-middle class players and £3.62 among farmers who play regularly, the National Lottery commission report showed.

However, Mr McCarthy said the sums involved represented a "small proportion of everyone's income". He added: "If you look at sins like drinking and smoking, the differences between socioeconomic groups are much more striking."

The National Lottery's director, Mr Ray Bates, said the variations were not so great as to cause concern. While unskilled and unemployed people had a higher participation rate than upper-middle-class people (67 per cent compared to 50 per cent), he said he did not think this was "disproportionate".

Rejecting the accusation that the lottery was a tax on the poor, Mr Bates said "the way we look at it is that poor people are entitled to a bit of fun too".

The report, An Assessment of the Economic Impact of the National Lottery 1987-2001, also showed that people with higher educational attainment both played less and spent less on Lottery games.