Arizona residents spend half of national average on lottery tickets
Jul 13, 2017, 12:53 PM
(AP Photo/G-Jun Yam)
(AP Photo/G-Jun Yam)
PHOENIX — Arizona residents spend about half of the national average on lottery tickets annually, a report from a loan website said this week.
The report from LendEDU said Arizonans spend about $100 per year on lottery tickets, well below the national average of $206.
But Arizona was by no means the lowest spender. That dubious distinction belonged to North Dakota, where the average person spent about $34 per year. The bottom five was rounded out by Oklahoma, Montana, New Mexico and Nebraska.
Massachusetts residents must feel lucky — a lot — because the average spending per person was more than seven times higher than in Arizona. The report said the average Bay Stater dropped a whopping $734 annually on lotto tickets.
Playing the lottery on the East Coast must be quite the attraction, because the top five states that spent the most on average per person are located there or near there. Massachusetts was followed by Rhode Island ($514 annually), Delaware ($421 annually), New York ($399 annually) and West Virginia ($360 annually).
The report also said Arizona takes in nearly $699 million in lottery revenue each year. Though that number is pretty significant, it doesn’t hold a candle to the mind-boggling $7.87 billion generated in New York, or the $5.52 billion raised annually in California.
