We all think about the lottery (mainly because we all want to win it, DUH!), and quite often we think about the quirky stories we hear regarding past lottery winners. You might have heard about the lottery winner who built a race track in his backyard. Or the teenage lottery winner who started his own “Wrestlelious” comedy wrestling show, which featured scantily clad women wrestlers doing comedy skits. Yes, it was a real thing.
Historically, the lottery and its players have been quirky, sometimes funny, and even sometimes sad. At the very least I’d say that the lottery and its players are interesting. Let’s take a look at some interesting facts about the lottery and its players that maybe you didn’t know.
The first fact that I wanted to point out astounded me because I would have sworn the opposite to be true. Did you know that about 48% of people who win the lottery actually keep their jobs? Granted this number takes into account that not all of the past winners won such large, life-changing amounts that they could live out their dreams of financial comfort. But many of those who continue working seem to gravitate toward entrepreneurship. I don’t mind saying that this is likely the path I will take when I win it all (unless of course, I win several hundred million).
Did you know that more money is spent on the lottery than all other forms of entertainment – combined? This fact is from a study completed in 2014. The money spent on sports tickets, movie tickets, video games, music, and books totaled $63 billion for the year. The total amount of money spent on the lottery that same year totaled $70 billion. As an aside, I don’t know that I’d called the lottery “entertainment.” Rather it’s more akin to dreams of grandeur. But the main point is that people fork over a lot of cash to get rich quick.
Here’s another fun fact about the lottery. 11 US states actually collected more money in lottery revenue than those same states collected in income taxes. Think about that for a moment: the entire population in 11 states that paid income taxes did not total the amount that just a portion of those populations paid to play the lottery. The first thing I wondered was are these people winning millions? You have to pay a heck of a lot in taxes if you win big money. I would imagine that a multimillion-dollar net worth increase would boost the total income tax numbers in those states, right?
On that note, let’s get into individual lottery spending a little further. Based on generic calculations that include the entire United States population, the average amount each person in this country would spend on the lottery in a year would be $218. Multiply $218 by the total number of people living in the US, and the figure gives you an idea of just how much major cash the lottery pulls in. Now, factor in that less than half of the entire population actually plays the lottery. So the actual average number each person spends on the lottery is much higher.
And finally, if you play lottery games like Powerball and Mega Millions, you know that those lottery drawings include multiple states. The Powerball has been in existence for 30 years. When it first appeared in April of 1992, 15 states offered their citizens a chance to access this potential jackpot. The Powerball has grown so much in popularity since then that today 48 states offer entry into this drawing. Additionally, the jackpot, once drawn two days every week, is now drawn three days every week. As of this writing, the Powerball jackpot is at its highest in history. I guess that’s why.