Jackpot Fatigue

“Jackpot fatigue” is what many lottery players experience, causing them to play the lottery less and less. Jackpots must get larger and larger to stir the same amount of interest. A $25 million lottery jackpot might have seemed large in the 1980s, but then lottery players looked for $50 million jackpots, then $100 million jackpots, then $250 million jackpots. News media bring in the casual player, but that attention doesn’t start until the jackpot becomes very large.
 
“The lottery bureau fears what it calls ‘jackpot fatigue’” was cited in the Pittsburgh (PA) Post Gazette in May 1989. The Post-Gazette wrote in June 1989:
 
“‘Jackpot fatigue.’ That’s the term people in the lottery business use when bettors become desensitized to prize size.”
   
 
Google News Archive
6 May 1989, Pittsburgh (PA) Post-Gazette, “Super 7 revenue didn’t close shortfall,” pg. 7, col. 3:
He pointed out, however, that the lottery bureau fears what it calls “jackpot fatigue” in the future. People who wait until the prize grows before they play may not be as impressed with $5 million jackpots as they have been, so more rollovers may be required to stimulate the increased play.
 
Google New Archive
27 June 1989, Pittsburgh (PA) Post-Gazette, “Lottery fever cools in state,” pg. 9, col. 2:
“Jackpot fatigue.” That’s the term people in the lottery business use when bettors become desensitized to prize size. Although $30 million is no small piece of change, bettors just aren’t as impressed by the sum so soon after $115 million was up for grabs.
 
Google News Archive
28 June 1989, Allegheny Times (Beaver, PA), “State lottery players suffering from jackpot fatigue,” pg. A3, col. 1:
HARRISBURG (AP)—Lottery officials said two lottery jackpots worth more than $23 million this week haven’t created the stir of last April’s record-breaking drawing because of “jackpot fatigue” and the season.
 
Google News Archive
6 November 1997, Lawrence (KS) Journal-World, “Powerball battles ‘jackpot fatigue,’” pg. 1B, col. 1:
DES MOINES, IOWA (AP)—Powerball jackpots will be bigger and the odds longer as lottery officials try to revive players suffering from “jackpot fatigue” with changes that took effect with Wednesday’s drawing.
 
Google Books
Government and the Transformation of the Gaming Industry
By Richard McGowan
Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc.
2001
Pg. 9:
Meanwhile, lotto sales have been subject to ‘jackpot fatigue’ such that interest in lotto games can only be generated when jackpots exceed $25 million.
 
Google Books
The Lottery Wars:
Long Odds, Fast Money, and the Battle Over an American Institution
By Matthew Sweeney
New York, NY: Bloomsbury USA
2009
Pg. 228:
The industry calls it jackpot fatigue. The free press attention and hype will only follow the largest drawings. A jackpot has to break records or top some understood standard of impressiveness to be “newsworthy.” As multistate games started reaching $200 and $300 million, the press and the players became jaded over jackpots of $10, $20, or even $90 million.
   
USA Today
Jackpot fatigue keeps lottery sales in slump for 18 states
Michael Symons, Asbury Park (N.J.) Press 4:43 p.m. EDT May 26, 2015
TRENTON, N.J. — The New Jersey Lottery is suffering from jackpot fatigue, but the entire state budget is feeling run down.
 
States with jackpot fatigue need increasingly bigger jackpots to lure in casual players who buy lottery tickets only when a prize is huge.
 
People once impressed with a $100 million payout shrug until it reaches $300 million. Then fewer people play, so it takes longer to get to staggering prizes.
     
Baltimore (MD) Sun
With jackpot games down, lottery seeks winning formula
By Jeff Barker
June 1, 2015, 5:58 PM
(...)
Lottery analysts have suggested that players might be becoming numb to Powerball’s soaring prize numbers — a phenomenon they call “jackpot fatigue.” It was up to $188 million as of Monday. Powerball, which Maryland officials say is undergoing restructuring designed to produce faster-growing jackpots, is played in 44 states and the District of Columbia.
 
The more big jackpots are publicized, the more routine jackpots “come to seem smaller, and people aren’t as captivated by them,” Loewenstein said.