People line up in front of a sales outlet in Seoul to buy lottery tickets on Jan. 2, 2022. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 9 (Korea Bizwire) — Low-income earners spent more on lottery tickets last year than in 2021, data showed Wednesday.
Households with more than one household member across the country spent an average of 703 won buying lottery tickets each month, up by 1.4 percent from the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea.
This is different from the actual amount of money spent on buying lottery tickets since it includes households that do not buy them at all. Nevertheless, it shows how the rate has increased in the last 12 months.
Sorted by income tier, the lowest 20 percent spent 27.4 percent more on buying lottery tickets than the previous year. The increase rate was the highest among all income tiers.
The top 20 percent, in contrast, spent 7 percent more on buying lottery tickets.
Looking at the actual amount of spending on lottery tickets by all households, the amount decreased by 3.5 percent from the previous year.
Last year’s annual lottery ticket sales amounted to 6.4 trillion won (US$4.86 billion), up by 7.6 percent from the previous year.
Among South Koreans over the age of 19, 56.5 percent said they had bought lottery tickets in the prior 12 months.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
