Incentive for saving $ ?

This article posted on the Harvard Business School Working Knowledge newsletter caught my eye. The authors conducted a small survey in Clarksville, Indiana to estimate the demand for prize-linked savings accounts -- a product available in over 20 countries but not in the U.S. Perhaps not surprisingly, the product appeals to non-savers and heavy lottery users..... (scary?)

Working paper: Consumer Demand for Prize-Linked Savings—A Preliminary Analysis

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5867.html
Download the PDF. Prize-linked savings (PLS) products are savings vehicles that may appeal to people with little savings and little interest in traditional savings products. PLS products offer savers a return in the form of the chance to earn large prizes, rather than in more traditional forms of interest or dividend income or capital appreciation. Prize-linked assets are offered in over twenty countries around the world—including the U.K., Sweden, South Africa, and many Latin American and Middle Eastern countries—but are not available in the United States, where state laws and federal regulations make the offering of prize-linked programs problematic. In this working paper, HBS professor Peter Tufano, Nick Maynard, and Jan-Emmanuel De Neve provide a first look into demand for a PLS product in the United States.