Big Dreams, Slim Odds: The Lottery Economy

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Who doesn’t dream of winning the lottery one day? Even people who don’t play probably fantacize every now and then about becoming a millionaire overnight: something few things but the lottery can help you achieve.

The truth, of course, is that your odds of winning the lottery are very slim: as slim as one in 195 million. And if you did win, you could end up receiving less than half of the advertised payout amount. Worst case? You could still end up blowing through your winnings and filing bankruptcy.

There is, of course, an entity that profits from the lottery no matter what: the state in which it is administered. Though the majority of the money collected from the sale of lottery tickets does go back into the jackpot, states collect their share. To find out which states collect the most, how much the winners get to keep and other interesting lottery facts, see our latest infographic.