Sarah Burness's Blog: How Would You Spend Online Winnings?

Some days, you see people queuing for the lottery or you hear of some lucky schmuck who’s won money. Now close your eyes and imagine. What if that was you? What if, by some stroke of huge luck, you win money online in some game or contest. How would you spend your online winnings? What would you do do with this sudden windfall?

Well, according to new research from gaming firm Wink Bingo, while a fancy holiday or a shopping spree might sound appealing, we are actually more likely to put an online cash win into a savings account, or use it to pay off debt. Sign of the times? Very probably.

How we’d spend our online winnings

Wink Bingo polled 1,000 Britons, asking them for their views on what they’d do if they won £50, £500 and £5,000 online as well as canvassing their opinions on charitable giving.

The research throws up some surprising results – of all the age groups, for example, would you have put Millennials as the biggest savers?

Let’s take a look at the data.

£50 win

A £50 win on the lottery, scratchcard or game of online bingo might seem a modest sum, but we’re more likely to save it that we are spend it. According to the data, 33% would save it and 14% would use it to pay bills. While 24% would use it to pay for a family treat, only 2% would donate it to charity.

Interesting fact: the research shows that, for a £50 win, almost one in every 25 men who responded said they’d give part of it to charity, as opposed to only one in every 255 women – a whopping tenfold difference.

£500 win

With the stakes raised, what would we do with a £500 win. The Wink Bingo research shows that the majority – 35% – would pay off debt, although 32% would treat family and friends to a meal out somewhere. However, donating to charity (6%), playing again (5%) and spending (just 2%) were all low down our priority list.

£5,000 win

While £5,000 might not be a life-changing amount of money, it’s certainly significant. What would we do with it? Perhaps surprisingly, we’re more likely to save it than spend it. 37% would put it in a savings account while 30% would fund a luxury holiday with it. 25% would pay off debt 23% would invest it. Just 7% would donate to charity.

Interesting fact: When the win amount is increased to £5,000, 4% more women than men said they’d donate some of their winnings to charity.

Charitable nation

While few respondents to the poll said they’d use a cash win to give to charity, the research reveals that we are, in fact, a fairly charitable nation. 61% said they would help a stranger, 60% donate money and 33% volunteer in their spare time. The reason so few of us would use a cash win to give to charity is probably because 34% of us are already giving to charitable projects.

Biggest savers

Does the older generation really save the most money? According to this data, nope. It reveals that the demographic most likely to save are, in fact, the Millennial generation. Asked what they’d do with a £50 win, 48% of 18-24 year-olds said they would save it, followed by 34% of those aged 65 and above.

Popular ways of winning cash

Britons’ most preferred ways of winning money are:

Lottery (33%)
Scratch cards (18%)
Betting (17%)
Online games and gambling (12%)
Contests and sweepstakes (7%)
Casino (4%)

Regional hotspots

Can generosity really be defined by where we live? Perhaps. The research shows that people living in certain parts of the UK are more likely to give away their money. Asked how likely they were to donate to charity or share their winnings with family and friends, people in Northern Ireland, London and Yorkshire and Humber gave more answers in the ‘very likely’ end of the scale than others.

On the other side of the scale, people in the south-east ranked bottom for sharing money with family and friends for all categories of winning – £50, £500 and £5,000. Perhaps there’s something in the water down there…

Shh! It’s a secret…

If you won lots of money playing bingo or on the lottery you’d tell your family and friends, right? Well, not all of us would. The Wink Bingo research reveals that 18% of people wouldn’t even tell their partners and friends if they won £5,000! We’ll leave you to be the judge of why that might be…

For more research into how we’re likely to spend online winnings, check out the rest of Wink Bingo’s infographic.