"Buying Lotto Every Week" Employment Crisis and Economic Recession... 2030s Relying on Lottery

Increase in Young Adults Buying Lottery Tickets for Socioeconomic Reasons
1 in 4 Seoul Citizens Say "No Social Mobility Despite Effort"
Experts: "Buying Lottery Tickets Reflects Hope Amid Future Uncertainty"

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[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Gayeon] "I buy lottery tickets because there is no hope."

Office worker A (27) buys lottery tickets every week. A said, "I know it's a vain hope, but I still want to hold on to even a small hope every week, so I buy Lotto and pension lottery tickets."

He continued, "Honestly, who these days thinks they can save money just by steadily saving their salary?" and added, "You can save some money to a certain extent, but since I don't think I can buy a house or improve my situation, I think people end up relying on things like this."

Recently, the number of young people in their 20s and 30s who rely on buying lottery tickets has been increasing. They regularly purchase lottery tickets and share stories of winners of 'Speedo', 'Lotto', and 'Pension Lottery' on SNS and online communities, leaving comments with the intention of 'receiving winning vibes.'

They cite economic factors such as employment difficulties, youth debt, and rising housing prices as reasons for buying lottery tickets. They argue that the increase in lottery purchases stems not just from personal reasons but from social and economic factors.

According to a survey, more than six out of ten office workers buy lottery tickets at least once a month.

In October last year, the open survey platform 'Now&Survey' conducted a survey of 760 office workers. When asked, "How often do you buy lottery tickets?" 32% answered "I buy them every week." Other responses included "once every 2-3 weeks" (15%), "once a month" (19%), "once a quarter" (13%), and "once a year" (10%). Only 11% answered that they do not purchase lottery tickets.

Youth collectively said that the social structure that makes it impossible to have hope for the future is the reason they rely on lottery tickets. Since prices and housing costs rise faster than accumulating assets through work, they give up hope for reality and aim for the so-called 'dream of a windfall' through lotteries.

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University student B (23) said, "I consistently buy lottery tickets," adding, "The cost of buying lottery tickets isn't a big burden if you think of it as not buying a cup of coffee that day."

B said, "Honestly, I don't really think I'll win the lottery, but you never know what can happen," and added, "If I win once, I would receive money that I could never earn in a lifetime. Since I probably can't buy a house even if I save all this money, I keep buying them with that thought."

This perception was also confirmed in a survey. One in four Seoul citizens believes that social mobility is impossible despite efforts.

According to the '2018 Seoul Survey' conducted by Seoul City in May last year, 27.7% of respondents answered "low" to the question, "Is there a possibility that social and economic status will improve with effort?" Respondents who answered "average" and "high" were 48.3% and 24%, respectively. The proportion of respondents who answered "low possibility" was higher than those who answered "high possibility" for the first time since the survey began in 2011.

Experts pointed out that due to economic recession and other situations, uncertainty about the future leads to viewing lottery winnings as a kind of breakthrough, which is a structural social problem.

Professor Kim Taegi of Dankook University's Department of Economics analyzed in a phone interview with Asia Economy, "Because the future is uncertain due to employment difficulties and economic recession, people rely on lotteries or stocks."

Professor Kim explained, "Especially when it comes to real estate, it means assets, but the act of building one's own property has disappeared. Unlike the parent generation, people think income inequality, opportunity inequality, and asset inequality are worsening, so they hope for 'luck' like with the lottery."