Costly number seven

Patrick Roger and Tristan Roger

Economics Letters, 2025, vol. 255, issue C

Abstract: Lotto players often choose numbers non-randomly, a behavior known as conscious selection. In many Western countries, the number 7 is considered lucky, causing it to be disproportionately selected in lotto games. This study quantifies the financial cost of this tendency using data from lotto games in Belgium (2011–2025) and France (2002–2008, 2019–2025), as well as Euromillions data (2016–2025). Due to the parimutuel payout system, tickets containing the number 7 earn significantly lower prizes than those without it. We find that this cost persists across different game formats and time periods.

Keywords: Conscious selection; Games of chance; Lotteries; Superstition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176525003568
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:255:y:2025:i:c:s0165176525003568

DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2025.112519

Access Statistics for this article

Economics Letters is currently edited by Economics Letters Editorial Office

More articles in Economics Letters from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().