State Lotteries Raking It In: Where Players Open Their Wallets The Widest

Count yourself among the few if you've never played your state's lottery. The average consumer spends around $288 annually on lotto tickets, but buyers can spend up to three times that much in some high-roller states like Rhode Island or West Virginia. 

Thanks to Casino Reviews, we can better see where people are spending money on state lotteries and lottery revenue per capita.

Money Maker

According to 2022 data from the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL), the states where ticket sales per capita were highest sat heavily on the East Coast. Seven of the top ten were on the coast, with Ohio, Oregon, and South Dakota also making an appearance. 

Rhode Island, West Virginia, and Delaware were in the top three, with more than $600 per person annually. Georgia was in tenth place with just over $200 spent annually per capita.

Business Is Good

Like all similarly profiting entities, state lotteries are a business. They take money in, hand it out, and then balance their books, hopefully in the black. 

With its burgeoning population of 19.54 million, New York makes the most after everything's said and done. Their net haul after ticket sales tally, and they award prize payouts, stands at $8.2 billion. That's a 700% jump over the nationwide average of $1.02 billion per state. 

California and Florida came in second and third, with state revenues reaching about $3 billion each. 

Not Created Equal

Interestingly enough, states that raked in the biggest haul overall weren't necessarily the ones where people were spending the most. 

Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and West Virginia ranked in the top three for highest sales per capita. West Virginians spend about $771 per year on lottery games, while Rhode Island stays on top with more than $860 spent yearly per resident. 

South Dakotans spend nearly $452 yearly hoping to win the jackpot. 

Thoughts on The Matter

Nikoleta Kuncheva, the Casino Reviews project manager, said this about the data findings. “Lotteries are a phenomenon found in nearly half of the world's countries, and the US is one of the most keen participants in them. The figures established by this research are fascinating, with many per capita numbers highlighting how keen Americans are to try their luck winning big. It's certainly interesting to know the areas of the country where this sentiment is the strongest.”

Source: Casino Reviews, Lottery.