Does the state have a lottery?

The first modern lottery

New Hampshire started the modern era of state lotteries. According to the New Hampshire Lottery, a sweepstakes bill passed in 1963 after being proposed five times over a decade, and tickets went on sale on March 12, 1964, making New Hampshire the first state to offer a lottery in modern times. The state dedicated its profits to public education, a model many later lotteries followed. As of 2026, the lottery says its contributions to education total more than $2.8 billion.

Other states followed over the next several decades, often after voters approved a constitutional amendment. South Carolina's first tickets went on sale in 2002 and Arkansas's in 2009. The Census Bureau counts Arkansas, Wyoming and Mississippi as the three newest lotteries, starting in fiscal years 2010, 2015 and 2020. That brings the total to 45 states.

The big multistate games came later. Powerball's first drawing was in 1992, and the game has grown from 15 member lotteries to all 48 lotteries in the United States: the 45 states plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Mega Millions began in 1996 as The Big Game, played in six states, and took its current name in 2002. A cross-selling agreement that took effect on January 31, 2010, let lotteries offer both games. Texas, for example, sold Mega Millions from 2003 and added Powerball in 2010, while Maine sold Powerball from 2004 and added Mega Millions in 2010. Mega Millions is now sold in all 45 lottery states, D.C. and the Virgin Islands, and its ticket price rose to $5 in April 2025.

Sources: New Hampshire Lottery: About · U.S. Census Bureau: Sales of Lottery Tickets Nearly Doubled and Prizes More Than Doubled From 2008 to 2024 (Apr. 8, 2026) · Powerball: FAQs (Multi-State Lottery Association) · Mega Millions: About Us

The five states without one

Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah have no state lottery. Their reasons differ. Utah's and Nevada's constitutions ban lotteries outright, and Section 65 of Alabama's constitution prohibits them too, so a lottery in any of those three states would take a constitutional amendment approved by voters. Nevada's ban covers lotteries only; its casinos operate under separate law. Alaska and Hawaii make gambling that the law doesn't specifically authorize a crime, and neither has passed a law creating a lottery.

Lottery proposals keep coming up in some of these states. In February 2026, an Alabama House bill (HB448) proposed rewriting Section 65 to allow a state lottery run by a public corporation, limited to paper tickets with no video lottery machines. The 2026 session ended in April without a lottery vote. Utah lawmakers proposed an amendment to allow a state-run lottery in 2024, and a 2025 Hawaii bill to create a lottery and gaming corporation was carried over to 2026 and never got a hearing.

Sources: Alabama Legislature: HB448 (2026), proposed constitutional amendment on a state lottery, as introduced

Where the money goes

Every lottery state decides for itself what its lottery pays for, and the choices vary widely. Many dedicate the money to education: Georgia's lottery funds HOPE college scholarships and pre-kindergarten, Florida's supports improvements in public education, Texas's goes mainly to the Foundation School Fund, and New Mexico's pays for college scholarships. Others chose different causes. Pennsylvania's lottery is the only one that dedicates all of its proceeds to programs for older residents. Colorado sends 40 percent of net proceeds to its Conservation Trust Fund, and Wisconsin uses lottery money for property tax credits.

Some states simply send lottery money to the general fund, as Delaware and Iowa do. Each state's record on this map notes what its lottery's own pages or laws say about where the money goes.

Based on the state records and sources in the table above.

Who runs a lottery

State lotteries are run in several different ways. Some are state agencies or divisions inside a department, such as Colorado's state lottery division in its Department of Revenue. Others are separate public corporations created by law, such as the Georgia Lottery Corporation, the Connecticut Lottery Corporation, and the New Mexico lottery authority. A few sit in less expected places: North Dakota's lottery is a division of the Attorney General's office, and Maine and Vermont run their lotteries through the same bodies that oversee liquor. Texas moved oversight of its lottery to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation on September 1, 2025.

What a lottery sells varies too. North Dakota offers only multistate draw games such as Powerball and Mega Millions, with no scratch-off tickets. Lotteries are also expanding into other gambling. Connecticut's lottery corporation, for example, may run retail and online sports betting and fantasy contests if licensed. This map covers only traditional lottery games; casinos, sports betting and tribal gaming are outside its scope.

Based on the state records and sources in the table above.

Lottery money by the numbers

The Census Bureau tracks lottery money through its Annual Survey of State Government Finances. In fiscal year 2024, state lotteries sold $104.7 billion in tickets, nearly double the $52.8 billion sold in fiscal 2008. Those figures are not adjusted for inflation. California, New York, Florida and Texas each sold more than $8 billion. The three newest lotteries, in Arkansas, Wyoming and Mississippi, sold $1.1 billion combined.

Most of each ticket dollar goes back to players as prizes, and that share has grown. Prizes rose from $32.2 billion to $70.2 billion over the same years, faster than sales, so the money left after prizes grew more slowly, from $20.6 billion to $34.5 billion. By those figures, states kept about 39 cents of each ticket dollar after prizes in 2008 and about 33 cents in 2024. Payout rates differ by state: Virginia paid out 80 percent of its 2024 ticket sales in prizes, Kentucky 75 percent, and Idaho, Massachusetts and Missouri 74 percent.

Prizes are taxable. The IRS treats lottery winnings as fully taxable income, and when a prize minus the cost of the ticket is more than $5,000, the lottery must withhold 24 percent for federal income tax. State income tax treatment varies. California's lottery law, for example, bars state and local taxes on prizes from the California Lottery.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau: Sales of Lottery Tickets Nearly Doubled and Prizes More Than Doubled From 2008 to 2024 (Apr. 8, 2026) · IRS: Topic No. 419, Gambling income and losses · IRS: Instructions for Forms W-2G and 5754 (Rev. January 2026) · Cal. Gov. Code § 8880.68 (public.law)

Federal law, state lines and online sales

Federal lottery law dates to the 1890s. An 1895 act of Congress made it a crime to carry lottery tickets from one state to another, adding to earlier laws that kept lottery tickets out of the mail. In Champion v. Ames (1903), a case over tickets for a lottery that claimed to hold its drawings in Paraguay, the Supreme Court upheld the act 5 to 4, ruling that Congress's power over interstate commerce lets it ban that trade.

Versions of those bans remain in federal law. It is still a crime to carry lottery tickets across state lines, or to run a business that buys tickets in one state for people in another unless the states involved have agreed to allow it. A separate section exempts lotteries run by states, so they can advertise and can mail tickets and materials to addresses inside their own state. Powerball's rules reflect this. Buyers don't have to be U.S. residents, and people from places where the game isn't sold can buy tickets from a licensed retailer in a state where it is, if they meet that state's age limit. But prizes must be claimed where the ticket was bought, and selling tickets online or by mail across borders is restricted.

Selling tickets over the internet raised a separate federal question. In 2011, answering requests from Illinois and New York, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel concluded that the federal Wire Act covers only betting on sporting events. New Hampshire then launched online sales that players can use only while physically inside the state. The office reversed its view in November 2018, New Hampshire's lottery sued, and in January 2021 a federal appeals court held that the Wire Act is limited to sports bets. Whether a lottery sells online is now mostly a matter of state law: Massachusetts law authorizes online lottery sales, Rhode Island put Powerball and Mega Millions on its website and app in 2026, and Washington law bars selling lottery tickets over the internet.

Sources: Champion v. Ames, 188 U.S. 321 (1903) (Cornell LII) · 18 U.S.C. § 1301, Importing or transporting lottery tickets (Cornell LII) · 18 U.S.C. § 1302, Mailing lottery tickets or related matter (Cornell LII) · 18 U.S.C. § 1307, Exceptions for State-conducted lotteries (Cornell LII) · Powerball: FAQs (Multi-State Lottery Association) · U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel: Whether the Wire Act Applies to Non-Sports Gambling (Sept. 20, 2011) · New Hampshire Lottery Commission v. Rosen, No. 19-1835 (1st Cir. Jan. 20, 2021)