Delaware lottery ticket spending ranks No. 5

Have you been caught up in the Mega Millions excitement?

If so, you likely have plenty of company in Delaware. The jackpot for Friday's drawing is now the third highest in the lottery's history: $548 million.

And Delawareans have shown they like to buy lottery tickets. In 2016, First State residents ranked No. 5 in the nation in lottery spending per capita, according to a report by student loan marketplace LendEDU.

Delaware residents spent an average of $416.50, LendEDU said. That's almost double the national average of $223.04. In the year before, Delawareans spent about the same ($420.82) but ranked No. 3, behind only Massachusetts ($734.85) and Rhode Island ($513.75).

In 2016, Massachusetts again led the nation in lottery spending ($762.98 per person), followed by West Virginia ($598.47), Rhode Island ($511.69) and New York ($420.37).

Six states — Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Mississippi, Nevada and Utah — did not have a lottery in 2016. But among states that did, North Dakota spent the least on lottery tickets ($44.90 per person), LendEDU's report said. North Dakota was last the year before as well with each person spending on average $34.09.

Rounding out the bottom five in 2016 were Wyoming ($46.73), Oklahoma ($48.24), Montana ($52.79) and New Mexico ($73.92), according to LendEDU.

To calculate lottery spending, LendEDU divided each state's lottery revenue by its population.

In 2016, lottery revenue in the United States totaled $72.6 billion, according to LendEDU. Delaware, ranking No. 32 in the nation for lottery revenue, accounted for $400.6 million. New York brought in the most with $8.3 billion, and Wyoming, with $27 million, had the lowest revenue among states with a lottery.

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