INDIANA – New research has revealed the luckiest lottery states, with Delaware coming out on top.
The study by Top online casino HotSlot analyzed data that showed all Powerball and Mega Millions jackpot winners, and their respective locations, to see which states have been most lucky based on the number of winners per 1,000,000 people.
It found that Delaware is the luckiest state of all, with a total of 10 winners, which, when accounting for population, means there are 10.34 winners per 1,000,000 people. The biggest win in the state came in 2009 on Powerball, with an annuity value of $174,400,000 and a cash value of $93,258,224.32. Despite having no Mega Millions winners on record, it still takes first on the list.
New Hampshire comes in second on the list, with 11 Powerball Winners and 1 Mega Millions winner; 8.85 winners per 1,000,000 people when accounting for population. 2018 saw the biggest win in the state, with an annuity value of $559,700,000 and a cash value of $352,018,919.39.
Coming in third place on the list is the state of Rhode Island. There are roughly 8.51 winners per 1,000,000 people, with eight winners. The biggest win came in 2012, with an annuity value of $336,400,000 and a cash value of $209,966,435.24 on a Powerball win.
The state of Indiana comes in fourth place on the list, with the most winners in the list with 41, with 39 Powerball winners and 2 Mega Millions winners. However, since this list accounts for population, it comes in fourth with 6.13 winners per 1,000,000 people. The biggest lottery win came in 2016 on Mega Millions, with a value of $536 million.
Rounding out the top five is the state of Missouri, which comes in with 33 total winners made up of 31 Powerball winners and 2 Mega Millions winners. This equates to 5.39 winners per 1,000,000 people when accounting for population. 2012 saw the biggest win in the state, with a Powerball win having an annuity value of $587,500,000 and a cash value of $384,747,857.92.
| # | State | Mega Millions Winners | Powerball Winners | Total winners | Population | Winners per 1,000,000 people |
| 1 | Delaware | 0 | 10 | 10 | 967,171 | 10.34 |
| 2 | New Hampshire | 1 | 11 | 12 | 1,356,458 | 8.85 |
| 3 | Rhode Island | 1 | 8 | 9 | 1,057,315 | 8.51 |
| 4 | Indiana | 2 | 39 | 41 | 6,691,878 | 6.13 |
| 5 | Missouri | 2 | 31 | 33 | 6,126,452 | 5.39 |
| 6 | Nebraska | 0 | 10 | 10 | 1,929,268 | 5.18 |
| 7 | West Virginia | 0 | 9 | 9 | 1,805,832 | 4.98 |
| 8 | Kansas | 1 | 12 | 13 | 2,911,505 | 4.47 |
| 9 | Minnesota | 1 | 22 | 23 | 5,611,179 | 4.10 |
| 10 | Kentucky | 0 | 18 | 18 | 4,468,402 | 4.03 |
Commenting on the findings, a spokesperson for HotSlot said: “It is interesting to see how despite some states having marginally lower populations, they have still seen many winners. Especially when this is compared to the largest states like Texas and California, which aren’t even featured in the top ten. While the chance of winning big is still slim, there is a fascinating comparison in the sheer number of winners the smaller states have seen, the ‘luck’ here is evident.”
Methodology
- The states of past winners of Powerball and Mega Millions were analyzed since their records began, which was then calculated with the population of each state to see which states had the highest number of winners per 1,000,000 people.
- Data has been sourced from the MegaMillions and Powerball websites, respectively.
