SG pools is a lottery operator in Singapore that carries out over 250 draws each year for its different games. These games include the Big Sweep, 4D, Toto Hongbao, football and motor racing betting plus their flagship Singapore Lottery game. SG Pools is a government authorized lottery operator and is recognized by the Singapore Tote Board.
A ticket for the Toto lottery costs a small sum of money and offers a one in a million chance to win a prize ranging from small consolation prizes to a large jackpot that starts at $1 million for every draw. The jackpot rolls over each time a winning ticket is not purchased and increases in size with every draw until a winner is found. This is known as snowballing and the jackpot will continue to grow until it reaches a point where the top prize will “cascade” down to the next prize level and be divided amongst the winners in that category.
We analyze the effects of a single, randomized drawing on household members’ self-reported health by collecting data from households before and after the drawing. Our results show that a $10,000 increase in unearned income via a lottery win improves households’ probability of reporting excellent, very good, or good health by 0.15 percentage points (approximately 0.18 standard deviations). The impact is stronger for households with higher liquidity constraints. Our results highlight the importance of incorporating heterogeneity in the design of lottery experiments and in the interpretation of lottery-health findings.