When lotteries are used to motivate people, it is important to get the details right. Participants are likely to find a lottery more enticing if they find out whether they would have won. The Dutch government uses this principle very effectively. One of its state lotteries is based on postal codes. If your postal code is announced as the winner, you know that you would have won had you only bought a ticket. The idea is to play on people’s feelings of regret.
