Report Says Lottery Ads Don't Increase Gambling Addiction
A new report says that increasing advertising doesn't cause more Florida Lottery related calls to the state's compulsive gambling hot line, but rising unemployment does.
The Legislature's Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability released the report Friday.
Analysts found no increase in calls seeking help for lottery addiction during months when advertising spiked. In one comparison, calls, instead, increased during a low-advertising month.
The hot line did receive five more lottery-related calls for each 1 percentage point increase in Florida's unemployment rate over the last two years.
However, there was no similar relationship between unemployment and calls citing other types of gambling.
