Lottery Singapore is a government-regulated lottery that gives players the chance to win huge prizes by matching a combination of numbers. It is operated by Singapore Pools (Pte) Ltd, a subsidiary of the Tote Board, a statutory body that oversees association football and motor racing betting in the country. The company’s products are sold at various licensed outlets, including airports and sports clubs. They also have a dedicated website where players can check the latest results.
The history of the game dates back to 1968, when a manual form was introduced. In 1981, the system was changed to include snowballing, allowing the jackpot to grow each time a winning ticket is purchased. The result was that the game became more popular, and jackpots have soared over the years.
Moreover, the number of prizes awarded in each drawing has increased as well. In addition to the jackpot, there are 6 additional prize tiers, each with its own odds of winning. Players can claim their prizes at any of the authorized lottery retail venues in the country, although international winners must contact their respective government to determine whether taxes apply.
A significant swath of the population is drawn to the lottery, and the average annual spending on tickets per player in Singapore is approximately $2,687. This figure is close to the gambling participation rate reported in the SLP (52.7 percent). Using OLS regression estimates, we find that an increase in unearned income via lottery wins improves household members’ self-reported health status by 0.15 points (0.18 standard deviation, or SD) on a scale of excellent to very good. This result is robust across several heterogeneous sex, education, and race/ethnicity control variables.