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Residents in 9 states spend over $300 a year on lottery tickets.
- Americans love to play the lottery.
- People living on the East Coast tend to spend more on lottery tickets, on average.
- Those living in Massachusetts spend the most on lottery tickets, on average.
Americans love to play the lottery.
But people living in some states spend way more than those in others.
Business Insider looked at statistics from the US Census Bureau to figure out the average amount each resident in a state spends on lottery tickets using population and lottery spending figures for 2015. (We were inspired by an analysis done first by LendEDU, but we did our own calculations.)
Americans living in the eastern half of the US tend to spend more than those living in the western half. Those living in the northeast specifically tend to spend more than those living in other parts of the country on a per capita basis.
Residents living in Massachusetts spend the most on lottery tickets by far at $737.83. Rhode Island came in second place at $514.15, and Delaware was in third at $424.38.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, North Dakota residents spent the least at $34.14, followed by Oklahoma at $43.93 and Montana at $53.73.
Seven states do not have their own lotteries: Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Mississippi, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. They are gray on the map.
Andy Kiersz/Business Insider