Rhode Islanders are spending more playing state lottery games, second in New England and third nationally, with the worst odds in the region, according to a report distributed this week by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
The report also says Rhode Island has the highest retention of sales in the region, keeping nearly 62 percent of the money collected from lottery sales.
“New England’s Lotteries: Trends in State Revenues and Player Spending,” written by Riley Sullivan, is part of the New England Public Policy Center Regional Briefs.
The Federal Reserve says the views are Riley’s and not representative of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Sullivan is a senior policy analyst with the New England Public Policy Center in the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Research Department. He has compiled his observations and data from a wide variety of sources.
He discusses the importance of lottery proceeds as state revenues but indicates those are shrinking as other online gaming options grow. And, he says, often the revenues are disproportionate with “lower-income individuals” spending “a larger percentage of their income on tickets.”
Here are some of the Sullivan’s findings:
- Massachusetts and Rhode Island have the country’s largest per capita spending on lottery purchases. In Massachusetts residents spent an average of $839 per person on state lottery tickets, the highest in the nation. Rhode Island was second in the nation at $540. The national average is $293.
- Massachusetts rated first and Rhode Island third in the nation for lottery spending as a share of personal income – Massachusetts at .99 percent, Rhode Island at 0.8 percent. Nationally, the number is .45 percent. In New England it is .75 percent.
- Of the more than $345 million taken in by Rhode Island from lottery sales, it keeps 61.8 percent of the revenue, fourth highest percentage nationally.
- In the region, states use lottery funds for varied reasons. Rhode Island puts the money in its general fund; Massachusetts contributes $1.2 billion of the $6 billion it collects to cities and towns, infrastructure improvements, and educational services; New Hampshire contributes $200.7 million in state revenues to public education; Maine and Connecticut allocate lottery money to the general fund; Vermont distributers its earnings to education.
- Nationally the trend is for lotteries to contribute lower percentages of funds to state budgets from 2005 to 2022. In New England that number was 2.2 percent in 2005 and 1.5 percent in 2022. Here’s the breakdown for New England state individually.
- Connecticut, 1.5 percent in 2005, and 1.1 percent in 2022.
- Maine, 0.7 percent in 2005, 0.5 percent in 2022.
- Massachusetts, 2.6 percent in 2005, and 1.8 percent in 2022.
- New Hampshire, 1.4 percent in 2005, and 1.2 percent in 2022.
- Rhode Island, 5.1 percent in 2005, and 2.8 percent in 2022.
- Vermont, 0.5 percent in 2005, and 0.4 percent in 2022.
- Growth in lottery revenue has also increased far slower than general revenues from 2005 to 2002. Here’s how it looks per New England state.
- Connecticut, lottery increase from 2005 to 2022, 51 percent; general revenue growth from 2005 to 2022, 110 percent.
- Maine, lottery increase from 2005 to 2022, 39 percent; general revenue growth from 2005 to 2022, 86 percent.
- Massachusetts, lottery increase from 2005 to 2022, 56 percent; general revenue growth from 2005 to 2022, 133 percent.
- New Hampshire, lottery increase from 2005 to 2022, 71 percent; general revenue growth from 2005 to 2022, 94 percent.
- Rhode Island, lottery increase from 2005 to 2022, 14 percent; general revenue growth from 2005 to 2022, 106 percent.
- Vermont, lottery increase from 2005 to 2022, 93 percent; general revenue growth from 2005 to 2022, 127 percent.