News writer; Opinion columnist
Massachusetts loves its lottery. Not just the one that helped fund the American Revolution.
In 1971, the Massachusetts State Lottery was launched. In 1974, it became the first in the United States to offer scratch-off tickets in partnership with fledgling Scientific Games, a future gambling industry titan now called Light & Wonder.
And today, Massachusetts residents spend more per capita on the lottery than any others: $839 each year, according to a report recently released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
Not $839 for those who play the lottery. $839 on average for each of the state's 7 million residents.
Obviously, not all of them can and actually partake, meaning the lottery ticket-buying population is extremely ardent.
Boston Fed senior policy analyst Riley Sullivan said on the organization's Six Hundred Atlantic podcast:
The actual per player average is probably even higher than that. But what we know, based on kind of the available data, is just this per capita number. It's still really jarringly high.
The national average: $293.
Sullivan continued:
A lot will kind of weigh in that they're surprised how high it is, because they don't buy any in a year. So, it's just really concentrated among a smaller pool of people. These really high numbers are coming from these players who are playing much more regularly.
Factors that push Massachusetts' lottery market
Calculating for Massachusetts' higher income rates as compared to the rest of the country, the state's residents spent .99% of their personal income on lottery purchases.
The national average: .45%.
But with lottery players typically coming from lower-income households, the report, titled “New England's Lotteries: Trends in State Revenue and Player Spending” concluded that “even in relatively affluent states, some demographic groups are more inclined than others to participate in lotteries.”
Sports betting hasn't hurt Massachusetts lottery yet
Even with the introduction of legal sports betting in Massachusetts in 2023, the lottery has continued to set records. In fiscal year 2023, the state broke a lottery revenue record of more than $6 billion, with $1.2 billion targeted for education programs, and state and municipal infrastructure.
The highly anticipated online sports betting market, meanwhile, produced $670.3 million that year, according to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.
The Boston Fed report acknowledged, however, that state lotteries throughout New England and including Massachusetts are not growing at the pace of new forms of gambling like sports betting.
For time being, however, it remains a key part of Massachusetts' gambling appetite.
“It just seems to be a cultural part of the fabric of the region,” Sullivan said.
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