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New York state by far has the highest sales of lottery tickets in the United States, 9.1 billion dollars worth of lottery tickets were sold in 2015, with a population of 19.5 million. California on the other hand, with a population twice the size only sold 5.5 billion worth of tickets in 2015, why are more tickets sold in NY? Massachusetts had 5 billion in lottery sales for 2015, yet with a population almost 1/3 of California (6.7 million). Are people in some states more inclined to gamble? Or is it just the advertising budget just bigger for NY and MS?
Maybe because some states have more gambling options? I would imagine that states that participate in the Mega Millions and/or Powerball have the most revenue per capita.
Oooops...disregard. I see that only four states (including MS) don't participate in MM & PB.
I think it's tied to historical behavior. I'm old enough that I remember the pre-lottery times. Hourly union workers played "the numbers" every week. It was usually betting on some weekly financial statistic like they amount of sales their employer had for the week or the amount of money bet on some horse race. Illegal. Often rigged. There were bookie-owned convenience stores and corner bars everywhere taking the betting money. Places like Massachusetts and New York that were big manufacturing centers in the 1950's had a lot of those people. Their children grew up with that culture and bought lottery tickets. Their children's children do the same.
I think it's tied to historical behavior. I'm old enough that I remember the pre-lottery times. Hourly union workers played "the numbers" every week. It was usually betting on some weekly financial statistic like they amount of sales their employer had for the week or the amount of money bet on some horse race. Illegal. Often rigged. There were bookie-owned convenience stores and corner bars everywhere taking the betting money. Places like Massachusetts and New York that were big manufacturing centers in the 1950's had a lot of those people. Their children grew up with that culture and bought lottery tickets. Their children's children do the same.
I would agree with this. There's little stigma to gambling in New York, and it's really part of the culture, as just about every volunteer fire department and Catholic Church (about half of NYS's population is nominally RC) in the state run weekly bingo games.
For one thing, there are far better entertainment options in California than New York -- like going to the beach, Las Vegas, or weed.
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