Why Are There More Winners In (Insert Place Here)?

A player contacted us this week with a question we’ve seen in different versions through the years: Why are there more winners in this state-that state/big cities-small towns/East Coast-West Coast?

We think the root of the situation is that players won’t truly be satisfied unless THEY’RE the big winners. In reality, winners are determined by nothing other than pure, random chance. But population does factor in.

This particular player asked about Powerball, so I’ll concentrate here on details about lotto games. But the same general concept applies to any lottery game.

As background, 48 U.S. lotteries sell Powerball, 47 sell Mega Millions, and 13 sell Lotto America. The odds of winning in each game are the same for every ticket purchased, but there will be more winners in places where more tickets are being sold.

Another way of putting it is that if about 5 percent of lottery tickets are sold in a particular area, you expect to find about 5 percent of the overall winners there. That doesn't mean the players there are luckier, it just means that more tickets have been sold in that area, so there will be a larger corresponding number of winners there.

A state like New York (with a population of 20.4 million) or Florida (population 21.6 million) will see more winners than a smaller state like Iowa with a population of 3.2 million. Over time, lotteries will see a proportional number of winners comparative to their jurisdiction's population, and that has been the case in jackpot games.

Another obvious factor in the location of lottery winners is whether a state even has a lottery. Currently, there are five U.S. states that don't have one: Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah.

Comments

[Mary Neubauer]

You are spot on, Kevin! Thank you for reaching out and sharing your perspective. You knew your stuff -- both while you worked at a retail location and after.

[Kevin Pidima]

CONTINUED FROM MY 1st BLOG.... An interesting fact ...

For many years I worked at Randall Foods in Cedar Rapids, this store was the #1 Lottery sales outlet in the state for many years, After the store was sold and went out of business, the Hy-Vee store located about a mile away became the #1 Lottery sales outlet in the state.
This tells me that certain locations are HOT Spots for Lottery sales no matter what the population in the area is.

This also tells me that Lottery sales are more based on people in an area that like to gamble, have the money to gamble, and actually buy tickets.

Lottery is gambling and a RANDOM game of CHANCE,
just play if you want to and HAVE FUN!
No matter where you live!

[Kevin Pidima]

Georges math is interesting but it's not just winners per population,
It's how many tickets are sold no matter what the population is.

Here is an easy experiment to prove the more purchases equals more winners theory....
Buy 2 tickets and see how many winners you get,
Then buy 25 tickets and see how many winners you get??
the fact is more plays will always equal more winners.

Have fun playing wherever you are, Your odds are the same no matter where you live!

[Mary Neubauer]

Hi, Todd. Great question. That same concept does apply to InstaPlay games. But I can identify with what you're saying -- even after all the years of working at the lottery, I'm still learning about communities in Iowa for the first time! But in all seriousness, an InstaPlay game in many ways is a scratch game left in electronic form. Rather than printing hard-copy tickets in advance, lottery terminals around the state instead print out the next available play when someone purchases a ticket in that InstaPlay game. You as the InstaPlay player are getting the next available play in the game, and winning tickets are randomly distributed throughout the supply of tickets in an InstaPlay game just like they are in a scratch game. So, we never know when or where the next big winner will hit -- it may be in a small town, or it may be right where you are. :)

[Todd Ferris]

Would this logic apply to the instaplay games here in Iowa? It sure seems like a majority of the progressive games are won in smaller towns (some of which I’ve never heard of)😎. Or is this game designed that way? Thanks for your feedback.