Lottery sales are slipping, but Manitoba hopes smaller prizes will win over young adults

The corp that runs drawing games in Manitoba is betting littler prizes and sir thomas more achievable wins testament sway young people who rarely, if ever, play.

That gamble matters to the provincial government, which receives all profits from Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries — the Crown corporation responsible for the actual distribution and sales of lottery products in Manitoba, while the Western Canada Lottery Corporation manages and operates the lottery games.

The Manitoba Crown corporation's net income from lottery sales dropped 13.4 per cent in the 2024-25 fiscal year, to just over $39 million.

Efram Lebovits, whose consulting firm has worked with lottery organizations, including the Western Canada Lottery Corporation, suggests the high cost of living has shifted young people's lottery dreams away from the kind of extravagant fantasies that may have fuelled lottery sales in the past.

"They're not always looking at the big outcome, the big jackpot, the big yacht. They're looking at things like paying the rent, how am I going to afford to grab dinner?" said Lebovits, a managing partner at Toronto-based Level5 Strategy.

"When that is the [economic] context that surrounds them," dreaming of a multimillion-dollar jackpot may feel like a "little bit of a stretch," he said.

That thinking helped inform this spring's relaunch of Lotto Max, a national lottery.

While the maximum possible jackpot increased by $10 million to $90 million, there are now multiple $100,000 prizes given out with every draw.

That smaller prize category was "viewed by many younger adults as more realistic, achievable and exciting" than multimillion-dollar jackpots, WCLC said in a statement.

Reese Ketler, a Winnipeg social media influencer in his 20s, was recently hired by Lotto Max to promote the $100,000 prizes. In a video, he asks viewers what they would do with $100,000.

"Maybe it's not about buying more things," he says in the promotional video, "but actually creating more freedom."

New Winnipeg billboards promoting a scratch ticket with a top prize of $50,000 appear to tap into the sentiment of realistic goals versus big wins.

"Imagine that grocery run," the advertisement reads.

Level5 Strategy's Lebovits also said the built-in delay between buying a traditional lottery ticket and the actual draw conflicts with the instant gratification younger consumers are accustomed to.

Shaneika Spencer, a 25-year-old living in Winnipeg's Daniel McIntyre neighbourhood, considers lottery tickets something catered to her parents, not her.

While visiting convenience stores, she sometimes wonders if she should try her luck.

'Then I'm, like, 'Never mind, I probably won't win anyways,'" she said.

Research from the Western Canada Lottery Corporation found roughly half of adults 35 and up bought a lottery product in the past six months. That percentage dropped to 42 per cent for those age 18-35.

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A spokesperson said the corporation is making improvements to its online app, which allows lottery tickets to be purchased online, to adapt to user needs.

Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries CEO Gerry Sul acknowledged young people's declining interest in lottery games during a committee hearing in January. Scratch tickets, in particular, aren't resonating with younger players, he said.

While unpredictability is baked into the lottery business — higher jackpots drive higher sales — "where we can control the outcomes" is ensuring that the corporation's lottery products are meeting demand, he said, pointing to the refreshed Lotto Max as one example.

A psychology professor who has studied the connection between lottery sales and socioeconomic status said young people aren't necessarily gambling less. Instead, they're finding more convenient online alternatives, such as sports betting and cryptocurrency.

"If you imagine the allure of doing something on your phone versus having to walk or drive to a corner store to go get a ticket, it's pretty apparent what someone would prefer," said Ross Otto, who teaches at McGill University.

Traditional lottery buyers tend to be older customers who buy tickets habitually, he said.

Satish Abbi has noticed that himself. He's been selling lottery tickets for a couple decades — including to a few customers who have become millionaires, he said — at Abbi's Payfair, his grocery store on Winnipeg's Sargent Avenue.

"I know which ticket they're going to buy too," he said of his regulars. "They don't buy any other one."

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He said it's probably a good thing young adults are spurning the lottery, since their chances of winning are slim.

And yet, Abbi has been buying lottery tickets himself since the 1980s. He won't stop.

"I'm not going to win, but I still play them. That's the only bad habit I have," he said, smiling.

Lottery games chasing young Manitoba adults with smaller prizes

Provincial affairs reporter

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