Replication data for: Gambling at Lucky Stores: Empirical Evidence from State Lottery Sales

Guryan and Kearney (2008) (henceforth referred to as GK) find that stores that sell a win-ning lottery ticket experience a prolonged increase in sales of that lottery. GK calls this phenomenon the “lucky store effect". Through further demographic analysis, GK demonstrate that it is more pronounced in poorer, less educated regions and regions with more elderly people. We reanalyze the data and find two deviations from their conclusion. First, after matching on demographics, the lucky store effect disappears, calling into question their demography-based results. Second, assuming there is in fact a demographic effect, the lucky store effect may not be magnified in elderly populations after controlling for income or education, as GK argue.