Everybody wants to be a milliner overnight. That dream of becoming rich creates a billion-dollar lottery industry in the USA. Although 45 states have legalized the lucky draw, five states are there that do not offer government-operated lucky draws.
Alabama, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii, and Nevada are those five states which keep themselves out of government-operated lotteries.
Here are the Top 10 reasons why these five states in the USA are not participating in government-approved lucky draws.
The Reasons why most of the US states sell lottery tickets?
- Increase revenue without increasing the tax: Financial crisis sometimes leads some US states to start these government-approved lotto games. This way, they increase their revenue without raising the tax.
- If a state is starting the lucky draw recently, it usually pressures the neighboring states to create the same.
- When a majority of a state’s population goes to the neighboring state to buy lottery tickets, that hold-out state feels it should also start.
How much famous the lotto games are in USA?
More than two lakh stores in the USA sell lottery tickets. Usually, the ticket is sold every week, and some weeks, there remains no winner of that lucky draw. So, it is a huge source of generating revenue for states.
In 1964, the first time the US government legalized the lottery. Hampshire, the state of America, was the first state to offer the lottery. Gradually, all 44 states started selling lottery tickets. Either sell their lottery, or they are under the multi-state -lottery system.
In 2019 there were record lottery ticket sales of $91 billion, according to the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries.
Not only that, the highest prize of the Powerball jackpot lottery is increased to $1.9 billion, the highest lotto prize in the USA. Now you understand how much huge the lottery craze is.
Why does the rest of the five states not draw the rollover jackpots?
Here are the reasons why five states hold out the government-approved lucky draw system.
Why the state of Alabama does not sell lottery tickets:
For a long time, the people and religious groups in Alabama are preventing the to implement lucky draw in their state.
But, there is a chance that Alabama may start legal lottery business very soon.
Jonathan D. Cohen, author of the book “For a dollar and a dream: State Lotteries in modern America” shared his opinion regarding this.
He said, The time when Don Siegelman became the governor of the state from that time it is trying to start the government-approved lottery.
That time there was a protest against the lottery and the protest was successful by the help of their church.
Now they might be interested in the lotto games business as Mississippi is now enlisted into state lotteries.
Why does Utah be out of state lotteries?
People Utah is also preventing the state lotteries from being implemented there. There are some solid religious groups present in Utah. They might be preventing the state from being enlisted into state lotteries.
More than 60% of the state population are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. So, the local people’s religious beliefs prevent them from being involved in a lucky draw.
That is why the state government kept the state out of lucky draw rollovers.
Why does Nevada not sell lottery tickets?
Gambling businesses are dominating the state of Nevada. The casino people in the industry feel that government-approved state lotteries are rivals. If the state lottery tickets are sold in grocery stores, their casino business will not run. That is why they are preventing government-approved lotteries from entering their state.
Why do Hawaii and Alaska keep themselves holding out-of-state lotteries?
Sometimes it was observed that when a state permits the state lotteries, it creates pressure on the neighbouring states to start the same.
When one state approves the state lotteries, many people from neighbouring holdout states try to buy those lottery tickets. They come to the border area of the states.
The holdout states sometimes acquire the revenue of tickets sold in those border area stores. That is why the approved form pressures the holdout state to start its lottery as soon as possible.
Some other reasons:
- Some states feel that low-income families are more interested in buying lotteries. Sometimes they spend a large amount of their income on buying lottery tickets. In that case, they could not believe their necessities.
- People in some states feel that buying lottery tickets could be an addictive habit. That is why they keep themselves away from it.
