An analysis of the goals of lottery managers: implications for developments in the operation of Canadian lotteries

Abstract. Government lotteries were introduced in Canada in 1970 and during the past eight years have increased greatly in number and in size. Lotteries have generated a great deal of public interest but the goals of lottery managers have received little attention. The purposes of this paper are to examine some objectives which could be achieved in the operation of lotteries and to use the results of this analysis, along with the experience of foreign lotteries, to make some tentative predictions about changes in Canadian lotteries over the next five years. The first part of the paper discusses the role of government in lottery operation and argues that government-run lotteries are preferable to privately run lotteries, even if government-regulated. The second section of the paper examines various goals which may be important to lottery managers and concludes that revenue maximization is likely to be more important than goals like minimizing the regressivity of a lottery ‘tax’ or achieving the price and output which would occur in pure competition. In the last section, suggestions for increasing lottery revenues are examined and it is judged that more frequent draws, special prizes and increased advertising are more likely to occur than changes in ticket prices, prize structures and payout ratios. Lottery profits could also be increased by eliminating the competition between the federal and provincial offerings and it is likely that further conflicts will be resolved by a joint operation or in favour of the provinces.     

It’s All in the Name: Source Cue Ambiguity and the Persuasive Appeal of Campaign Ads

As strategies for campaign political advertising become more complex, there remains much to learn about how ad characteristics shape voter reactions to political messages. Drawing from existing literature on source credibility, we expect ad sponsorship will have meaningful effects on voter reactions to political advertisements. We test this by using an original experiment, where we expose a sample of student and non-student participants to equivalent ads and vary only the paid sponsor disclaimer at the end of the message. The only thing that differs across stimuli is whether a political candidate, a known interest group, or an unknown interest group sponsors the advertisement. Following exposure to one of these ads, participants complete a posttest battery of questions measuring the persuasiveness of the message, source credibility, and message legitimacy. We find that ads sponsored by unknown interest groups are more persuasive than those sponsored by candidates or known interest groups, and persuasion is mediated by perceived credibility of the source. We conclude by discussing our findings and their implications for our understanding of contemporary campaigns.     

Changes in homeland security activities since 9/11: an examination of state and local law enforcement agencies’ practices

This study investigated differences in state and local law enforcement agencies participation in homeland security activities within the year after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and 13 years later. Further, this investigation assessed whether there were regional differences for these practices during these same time periods. Activities assessed were based on a homeland security initiatives index. Data suggest that, in the year after the attacks, agencies’ participation in all of Stewart and Morris’ homeland security activities was not high and statistically significant differences existed across several regions for some of these practices. However, since then, the number of agencies participating in all of Stewart and Morris’ homeland security activities increased and statistically significant differences between regions decreased. The increase in participation may be attributed to incentives provided by the federal government. Nevertheless, data suggest that support may be waning within law enforcement agencies to participate in homeland security activities.