THE COUNCIL WELCOMES PHIL KOPEL

by Phil S. Kopel, Research and Data Director

 

 

 

Hi, I am Phil Kopel, the new Research and Data Director for the Council.  While I am new to the Council, I have been involved in the gambling industry for over 27 years.  I started in the industry as Manager of Marketing Research for lottery supplier, GTECH Corporation. After that, I was the President of Kopel Research Group, Inc., a marketing research firm that conducted lottery game research and player behavior studies for many governmental lotteries and their suppliers and advertising agencies.  Finally, for the past three years I was the Director of Marketing Research for the CT Lottery Corporation.

I prefaced my comments with my background, to illustrate that my knowledge of the gambling industry comes from that of the industry itself, not as a clinical researcher working with problem gamblers.  My research objective has always been to provide my clients and employers with honest information to help them optimize lottery games so that they provide their players with products that they would most want to try, and continue to play.  Clearly the lotteries have been very successful at selling their products.  Last year, annual lottery sales in the United States totaled about $60 billion, and sales were over $4.7 billion in Massachusetts, a state with just 6.6 million people.

As I take on this new role, I have a lot to learn about compulsive gambling, and am looking forward to learning from the best.  Some may think I am changing sides, becoming anti-gambling.  However, the reality is that the Council is neutral about gambling.  Its goal is limited toward the prevention of compulsive gambling and to help current problem gamblers find effective resources to aid in their recovery. Toward those goals, the Mass Lottery and Council are actually partners, since eliminating compulsive gambling is in everyone’s interest.

As a researcher, I am very excited to apply my lottery industry and market research expertise to compulsive gambling issues. 

For many lottery players, buying lottery tickets with “disposable money” (money used for discretionary use after all of the bills are paid) can be fun, like going on a ride at an amusement park.  However, for those who have addictive behavior and gamble compulsively the result can be heartbreaking and devastating.  Money that should be used to pay for needed products and services such as: food, housing, clothing and health care is instead spent on scratch tickets comprised of shiny paper with predetermined outcomes and cash register receipts for games with drawings. 

Games are designed so that most players will occasionally win “your money back” type prizes, creating an incentive for the player to keep playing.  While a few well publicized players do win big, typically the more players play, the more they lose.  That is the only way the system can work.  Here’s why:

For every dollar a player spends to buy a lottery ticket, about 70 cents is returned into the prize pool, 25 cents goes to the state treasury (after all, that is the reason for the lottery) and about 5 cents is used to cover administrative costs. 

Much of the money that goes back to prizes fuels top “promotable” prizes, while the majority of tickets are losing tickets, “win your money back” tickets and some minimal “small tell your friends you won” type prizes. 

For those who find fun in these games, the lottery has succeeded in meeting its objective. The lottery wants you to have fun and play for entertainment value... while it takes your money. They also couch their message by saying, “play responsibly;” meaning do not spend more than you can afford to lose, because that is the likely outcome. However, for those who cannot play just for fun and are experiencing gambling issues, the Mass Council on Compulsive Gambling understands the problem and they can help.