Mobile Entertainment Trends: How Sweepstakes Engage Users

Money can not only be earned, but also won. The former is the result of hard work, the latter is a random occurrence. Millions of people regularly try to catch luck by the tail and increasingly do it online on their phones.

The probability of winning the lottery is small. It's there, but much lower than the likelihood of making money by improving the efficiency of a business, getting a pay raise, or building an investment portfolio. But people keep playing because the lottery is a game, a game is a form of recreation, and everyone needs to relax.

Sweepstakes as a type of lottery

Sweepstakes is a kind of online lottery where the winner is chosen at random. It is based on the automation of all processes, eliminating human intervention as much as possible in order to reduce lottery costs and make the drawings objective. The prize pool is drawn with the help of a software and hardware complex.

How to play it?

To enter the draw, users usually just need to leave their contact details (most commonly email and name). The end result is a triple winning combination:

• The user gets a chance to win a valuable prize without paying a dime;
• The advertiser gets an email database, on which he can then make advertising mailings;
• The arbitrator gets money for each user who fills out the submit form.

The most popular sweepstakes offers are drawings of iPhones (other equipment), cash rewards and all sorts of discounts and bonuses.

Why do people play it?

When people play sweepstakes casino from the list, the offer seems to be purely favorable. Accept it, why refuse to spin the wheel, if all positions are attractive, starting from cash bonuses to deposits, ending with freespins. That is, you can win something without losing a penny, so why refuse?

When people are already involved in the game and there is an opportunity only to improve the situation by spinning the wheel, no one refuses.

Big winnings and fun in the process

The UK Department for Digital, Culture and Sport conducted a survey of National Lottery players. The majority (67%) said they play in the hope of hitting the big jackpot, while 24% of respondents participate because the government donates part of the lottery proceeds to good causes. Another 8% said that they treat lotteries as a hobby: they just enjoy the process.

Hope for a miracle

People hope that in an instant they will get rich, buy a big house and car, close their loans, and pay for their children's education. American economists Charles Clotfelter and Philip Cook in a scientific paper provided surveys, the results of which showed that many lottery participants fantasize about how their lives will change if they win a large amount of money. The authors write that this fact makes lotteries not an investment in financial well-being, but rather a means of short-term escape from reality.

Search for diversity

Canadian sociologist, psychologist and writer Erving Goffman writes in his book “The Ritual of Interaction” that participation in sweepstakes compensates for the monotony of daily work routine. This is explained by the fact that during the lottery people experience emotions that are difficult for them to experience in everyday life.

Thus, an experiment conducted by researchers from Erasmus Rotterdam University proved that during the scrolling of the wheel and before the results of the draw people experience positive emotions and are in a state of euphoria.

Is it causing addiction?

Many people think that sweepstakes are not gambling, and therefore do not cause addiction. Would you believe that even unboxing the mystery FC Loot boxes are considered to be gambling? But psychologists confirm that in fact these forms of leisure activities are similar.

Experts advise not to get too carried away and remember that the lottery is primarily entertainment, not a means of earning money. But at the same time, it gives someone a chance to change their life for the better in an instant - and that's great!