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Lottery sales fast-paced in low-income, Latino and Asian neighborhoods
Three California Lottery Scratchers tickets, littered on the ground in Los Angeles.
(
Kevin Ferguson/KPCC
)
Listen
4:10
Lottery sales fast-paced in low-income, Latino and Asian neighborhoods
This is the second of a two-part series. The audio from the first part is available here.
A cluster of stores in Orange County, all in Westminster and Garden Grove, were among the lottery’s 30 biggest retailers in 2016 and 2017. The six stores — Gallop Liquor, Café Trang, Coffee Lovers, Al’s Market, LaunderLand and Café Deng — together sold $53.3 million in lottery tickets.
The retailers all sit in census tracts that are home to a plurality of Asian-Americans, and are among the bottom group of incomes in the county.
That trend echoes KPCC/LAist's analysis of two years of ticket sales data, which found that, across California:
- Ticket sales are disproportionately high in the poorest quarter of census tracts in nearly every populous county.
- Ticket sales are disproportionately high in Southern California census tracts with a plurality of Asian-Americans or Latinos.
- Ticket sales are disproportionately high in the Southern California counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura.
Click on the play button above to hear the audio for this story. And you can head over to LAist.com to read the full story.
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But the game has changed: Congress voted to eliminate funding for public media across the country. Here at LAist that means a loss of $1.7 million in our budget every year. We want to assure you that despite growing threats to free press and free speech, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust. Speaking frankly, the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news in our community.
We’re asking you to stand up for independent reporting that will not be silenced. With more individuals like you supporting this public service, we can continue to provide essential coverage for Southern Californians that you can’t find anywhere else. Become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission.
Thank you for your generous support and belief in the value of independent news.
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