Our findings indicated that the average amount won among those who chose to continue working was relatively high ($2.59 million), suggesting a relatively high monetary threshold for discontinuing work, and even among these high winners, a sizable number still continued working. For instance, a 64-year-old bus driver who won $20 million dollars stated (in the open-ended section of the questionnaire) that the “lottery is just a bonus that came my way, it has not or will not affect my work habits and goals in life.” (p. 415-6)

Kaplan (1985) reports that in his study of 576 lottery winners in the USA, only 11% of them ceased working. Similarly, in a recent study, Arvey, Harpaz, and Hui (2001) disclosed that more than 86% of an American sample that won an average of US$3.39 million (sd US$5.08 million) in the lottery, continued working. Hence, these findings are supportive evidence that the hypothetical ‘lottery question’ may in fact be regarded as an accurate indicative of actual behavioural intention in the work place” (p 179-80)