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Arizona Lottery Pays Out $2.9 Billion
Arizona Lottery has contribute more than $1.8 billion to state and local projects and programs, far surpassing the annual revenue hopes of that original group of businessmen. For twenty-five years the Arizona Lottery has made hundreds of people millionaires while awarding $2.9 billion in prizes.
Thousands of everyday folks with visions of Porsches and mansions and early retirement play every week against almost impossible odds, spending about $400 million a year on tickets. Yet Arizonans lured by the prospect of easy wealth continue to plunk down a buck or more for a chance to realize their dreams.
And despite fears that the lottery would draw "undesirables" to the state, criminal influence and corruption charges have not materialized. Today, with Indian casinos, online gambling and lotteries in almost every other state, the gambling landscape has drastically changed.
There have been machinists and casino workers, short-order cooks and postal workers, laborers and retirees. They've financed their children's college educations or their own retirements, lost everything in bad investments or spent their way back to where they were before winning.
Though most players have spent way more money on the lottery than they have collected, a lucky 398 players have won a million dollars or more. Still, even those who have done the almost impossible and won continue to hold out hope that they can do it again.
Arizona was the first state west of the Mississippi to sponsor a lottery. Though lotteries are now held in 42 states, only 14 had lotteries in 1980 and the 1980 initiative campaign to create the lottery was steeped in controversy.
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