'Powerball fever,' Massachusetts cities, towns win big with surge in lottery ticket sales
BOSTON - This Saturday's Powerball jackpot is so big the signs displaying the potential winnings in some store windows are not built for it.
After no one won Wednesday night's drawing, the jackpot jumped to a record breaking $1.6 billion. It will result in big winnings for those who have the lucky ticket and for the state as well.
The Massachusetts State Lottery makes billions of dollars a year. The lottery said when you average all of their games, 73% of their earnings goes right back to customers in the form of prizes. The lottery said 19% goes right to cities and towns, another 6% goes to retailers, and less than 2% goes to administrative expenses.
When you focus on the money going back to municipalities, you will find cities and towns have a lot of say on how it's spent.
Massachusetts joins Maine, Connecticut, and Rhode Island in putting money toward a general fund. Vermont and New Hampshire opted for an education lottery.
In the 50 years since its first ticket sold, the Massachusetts State Lottery said it has given back more than $31 billion to municipalities. That includes $1.1 billion this year alone.
"There is Powerball fever going on right now," said Massachusetts State Lottery Executive Director Mark Bracken. "The money gets turned over to the cities and town and the town government gets to decide how to use that money. It's been our mission since 1972, when we sold the first lottery ticket."
The state legislature created a formula to decide how much each city and town received each year in lottery money. It largely follows population.
Boston received $208 million in lottery money to go toward its general fund. On the other end of the spectrum, you will find the town of Gosnold. The island between Buzzards Bay and Martha's Vineyard received $2,305 in 2022.
"We rely heavily on state aid in the town of Dracut," said Dracut Town Manager Ann Vandal. Vandal said roughly a quarter of the town's annual budget is made up of state aid, a good portion of which consists of lottery money.
"It gives us the ability to focus in areas, and move money around, when we need to," said Dracut. "If for whatever reason the school needs more funding, we are not restricted to keep a certain portion of that lottery aid for just schools. We can move a little more if we need to or we can move a little more to police and fire."
The Massachusetts Lottery encouraged people to play responsibly and within their means.
Tickets for Saturday's drawing must be purchased by 9:50 p.m. EST.