GAMBLING WITH YOUR IDENTITY: UA SOCIOLOGIST TO PRESENT LOTTERY RESEARCH AT NATIONAL CONFERENCE

CHICAGO — You call them your lucky numbers. They could be the year you married, the ages of your children or the jersey number of your favorite NBA player. But every week you — and thousands like you — transcribe these numbers on a lottery ticket and cross your fingers for wealth.

Are you wealthy yet?

Not likely. But even though lucky numbers prove no more "lucky" than random digits selected by computer, about half of all lottery players continue to use personal numbers on their tickets. And with good reason, says a University of Arkansas sociologist.

"People think of lottery tickets as impersonal commodities, but these tickets have a capacity to extend the identity of the buyer," said Dr. Douglas Adams. "By choosing personal numbers, people turn a seemingly meaningless activity into an expression of who they are."

Adams has devoted more than eight years to the study of lottery participation. On Saturday, August 7, Adams and colleague, Steven Worden, will share some of their findings with the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction — an affiliated meeting of the American Sociological Association conference in Chicago.

Their presentation — entitled "My Ticket, My Self: Lottery Ticket Number Selection, Identification, and the Commodification of the Self" — examines the ways and reasons that people personalize their lottery tickets.

During the course of his research, Adams has formally surveyed more than 1,000 adults concerning their lottery participation. In addition, he has conducted ethnographic field research — striking up conversations with ticket buyers while standing at the lottery counter or hanging out at convenience stores.

Some scholars attribute lottery participation to personality traits, such as greed, or to economic conditions, such as poverty. But Adams has found that social context more strongly influences whether a person plays the lottery.

"You can’t just look at the individual. It also has to do with their friends and family," he said. "If you’re embedded in a social context where people play, you tend to play too. If they don’t, most likely you won’t either."

Of those who do play the lottery, Adams says about 50 percent use Quick Pick, which randomly selects numbers for each ticket. Thirty-five percent of participants use Quick Pick and personal numbers interchangeably, and the remaining 15 percent routinely play their personal numbers.

While these statistics may seem small, the use of personal numbers is so well-known that Minnesota once offered a lottery game called Date-O, specifically to capitalize on the phenomenon. Players participated by picking a month, day and year for their ticket numbers.

According to Adams, people who select personal numbers fall into three categories.

The first category consists of people who choose to represent themselves with public, cultural or historical numbers. These participants use the dates of historical events or the numbers of their favorite athletes because such numbers reveal aspects of their personal histories or preferences.

People in the second category select numbers that reflect only themselves as individuals — their own birthdays, graduation dates or ages.

And those in the third category choose numbers that represent their social group, thereby defining themselves according to the people around them. These players are likely to use an anniversary date or the ages of their children.

No matter how they choose, lottery players develop an extraordinary loyalty to their personal numbers. In fact, Adams says they often become so dedicated to their numbers that they continue to play the lottery week after week — even when it becomes more of a burden than a pleasure to do so.

"People will pick their numbers and play those numbers despite the fact that it’s no longer fun to play the lottery. They begin to play because they’re worried that one day those numbers will win, and they won’t be holding a ticket," he said.

However, Adams is quick to assert that such dedication is not due to superstition. "These people play the same numbers week after week despite the fact that their numbers fail to win," he said. "They don’t react as though the gods are frowning upon them. If they were superstitious, they would change the numbers."

Rather than superstition, Adams sees a more positive reason that people play the lottery using personal numbers. Not only does it enable people to express their identities, but playing the lottery triggers a positive sense of anticipation.

"People daydream about winning all that money, and many of them discuss it with their friends and families. They talk about buying Mom the house she always wanted or about buying Dad that pickup truck," said Adams.

"By choosing personal numbers for the lottery, and then by discussing the lottery with their peer group, people have found a way to make a seemingly impersonal act socially meaningful."

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Doug Adams and Steven Worden can be reached at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago, (312)726-7500, from August 5 though August 10.