Combine the accessibility and addictive nature of scratch tickets with the long-term financial benefits of a 401k.

Thanks for the welcome, adding more detail below based on the comments.

I read a study stating that "households earning under $13,000 per year – spend about 9% of all their income on lottery tickets".

http://bit.ly/1ipSIQL

I speculate that people purchase these tickets because it is so easy to do (unlike investing in the stock market). The average ROI on scratch tickets has to be negative as the local government typically pulls a large percentage of money from the lottery pool before calculating how much to pay out to participants. For example, Massachusetts (where I live) made $251,329 in revenue in 2012 off of instant win games (scratch tickets).

http://bit.ly/18TFPez

Rather then take advantage of lower income families by offering negative ROI scratch tickets, what if local governments offered tickets that would automatically invest winnings in a blend of investments similar to a 401k? This would make it easier to get money invested, just buy a scratch ticket at the grocery store - but difficult to get money out, winnings would go to an investment account instead of immediate hand over of cash.

I thought this could be an interesting way to turn a negative habit into a positive one!
-- JayBay, Dec 28 2013

401(k) http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/401(k)
not a term used much outside the USA, the 401(k) is a type of defined contribution pension scheme [calum, Dec 28 2013]

What?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Dec 28 2013


HE SAID "GAMBLE ON YOUR RETIREMENT!"

Don't we already gamble that inflation will render any Government retirement plan savings almost worthless?
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Dec 28 2013


Great idea [+], I assume your saying put 50% in a 401k and 50% towards the lottery. If not, I like your esoteric nature [+]
-- leinypoo13, Dec 28 2013


Welcome to the halfbakery, JayBay. If my company would go in halfsie, I would do this. Once.
-- blissmiss, Dec 28 2013


Oh wait - a newbie! Welcome to the HB, [JayBay].

However, as an idea, this is missing the bit after the first sentence.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Dec 28 2013


Well, you didn't explain how this would actually work, but welcome to the hb anyway.
-- xandram, Dec 29 2013



random, halfbakery