Do you live in one of these five states? Then you have a better chance to win the Powerball

Lottery jackpots have been getting bigger with ten surpassing the billion-dollar mark in the last four years. The eye-watering sums of money prompt about 50 percent of the US population to buy a lottery ticket at least once a year.

According to data from the US Census Bureau from 2023, Americans forked out roughly $103 billion on lottery tickets reports the financial website Motley Fool Money. The biggest spenders were in the state of Massachusetts. However, per capita only 73 cents per dollar spent was paid out in prizes, but that is a heck of a lot better than returns for players in South Dakota where it’s just 21 cents.

That shouldn’t be too surprising given the astronomical odds for winning a jackpot in games like Powerball, which is over 292 million to one. The chance of even just breaking even is one in 38.

Yet there are states that seem to have more winning mojo than others according to an analysis of Powerball data from 1992-2025 conducted by gaming website CSDB.gg and reported by the New York Post.

The US states that have the Powerball winning mojo

According to the CSDB.gg residents of Rhode Island have the best odds of winning the Powerball jackpot, with the state having 38.39 wins per 100,000 residents. The jackpot has landed in the state 427 times. Interestingly though, only 33 cents per dollar spent in Little Rhoddy is paid out in prizes.

Next is line for highest per capita win ratio is West Virginia. The 483 Powerball wins translates to 27.29 wins per 100,000 residents. Rounding out the top five are Delaware, New Hampshire and Indiana.

At the other end of the spectrum are California, Texas, Wyoming, Washington, and Mississippi. However, these states either have much larger populations or joined the Powerball game significantly later than those at the top of the list.

Furthermore, five out of the dozen billion-dollar-plus jackpots have landed in California, including the all-time record $2.04 billion won in November 2022 by Edwin Castro. This could explain why for every dollar spent on lottery tickets in the Golden State 65 cents is paid out in prizes.

As a matter of fact, the other four at the bottom of the winning mojo list outperformed the top three when it comes to prize money paid out per dollar spent per capita.

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