A widely documented empirical regularity in gambling markets is that bets on high probability events (a race won by a “favourite”) have higher expected returns than bets on low probability events (a “longshot” wins). Such favourite-longshot (FL) biases however appear to be more severe...

This paper provides an empirical analysis of the relationships between three popular lottery games in the state of Texas: Lotto Texas, Texas Two Step, and the multi-state Mega Millions game. The analysis suggests complementarity between the Lotto Texas and Mega Millions; habitual players tend to...

Explanation of the Allais paradox and the preference of many for multiple prize lottery tickets provide a rationale for why a model of agent's choice under uncertainty should embody the assumption that they distort probabilities. However the degree of probability distortion required to explain...

It is well-established that problem gambling results, in part, from erroneous perceptions about the probability of winning. While individuals retain the ultimate responsibility over gambling choices and level of participation, optimal decision-making depends, among other factors, on the...

The United Kingdom National Lottery is a member of a lottery block that offers a weekly lotto game, known as EuroMillions, for which tickets are now sold across nine countries. The paper examines whether the game has cannibalised sales in the pre-existing national lotto game and whether, with...

The purpose in this paper is to demonstrate how the non-expected utility models of Markowitz and Kahneman and Tversky can explain why an agent, chooses to bet each way on a horse. We also show that that appeal to moments of return, such as a preference for skewness of return, ceteris paribus, to...

The predictions of the traditional balanced-book sportsbook model and the alternative Levitt model of sportsbook behavior are tested using actual betting percentages on the favorite/underdog and over/under for NCAA Football. Sportsbooks are found to not balance betting dollars, which is in...

Characteristics of households who participate in gambling markets in the US, and the determinants of household expenditure on gambling, are investigated using data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX). I estimate empirical models of participation in gambling markets and gambling...