Prize-Linked Savings Accounts: Savings With a Jackpot on the Side

It's not a secret that Americans have a pretty serious savings problem. In fact, a recent report by the Federal Reserve found that nearly half the U.S. population would struggle to come up with $400 to cover an unplanned expense. On the other hand, countless folks seem to have no problem losing money to gambling. Americans threw away a collective $116.9 billion in gambling losses last year, and spent $70 billion on lottery tickets in 2014.

Now if you ask any logical person who's low on savings whether it pays to stash spare cash in the bank versus gamble it away, the response would most likely favor the former. Most people's behavior, on the other hand, favors the latter, and a lot of that boils down to the thrill of winning big.

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Source: Fool.com