You can’t buy Mega Millions or Powerball tickets in 5 states: Here’s why

In the v states without lotteries, a case of Powerball fever

Powerball jackpot nears earth record



With no winner, Powerball jackpot hits staggering $i.5 billion
01:xviii

Loretta Williams lives in Alabama only collection to Georgia to purchase a lottery ticket for a chance at winning the $1.5 billion
Powerball
jackpot.

She was ane of many Alabama ticket-buyers flooding across state lines Th. The third-largest lottery prize in U.S. history has people around the land clamoring for a chance to win. But in some of the five states without a lottery, envious bystanders are crossing state lines or sending ticket coin across them to friends and family unit, hoping to make it on the action.

“I think it’due south ridiculous that we have to drive to get a lottery ticket,” Williams, 67, said.

  • Powerball jackpot hits staggering $1.5 billion, just short of world record for lotteries
  • What are the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot?

Five states — Utah, Nevada, Hawaii, Alaska and Alabama — do not accept a lottery. A mix of reasons accept kept them away, including objections from conservatives, concerns most the impact on depression-income families or a desire non to compete with existing gaming operations.

“I’m pretty sure the people of Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi and Georgia appreciate all of our contributions to their roads, bridges, didactics system and many other things they spend that money on,” said Democratic legislator Chris England, from Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Several times weekly, England hears from constituents asking when Alabama volition approve a lottery: “Particularly when people wait on TV and see it’south $ane.five billion dollars.”

Opposition intertwined with opportunity

In 1999, Alabama voted down a lottery referendum under a mix of opposition from churches and out-of-state gambling interests. Lottery proposals accept since stagnated in its legislature, the upshot at present intertwined with debate over electronic gambling.

In Georgia, a billboard along Interstate 85 beckons motorists to end at a gas station billing itself as the “#one LOTTERY STORE” — 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the Alabama-Georgia line. Alabama car tags outnumbered Georgia ones in the parking lot at times and a line for ticket purchases stretched across the store.


buce-gideos-nh-powerball.jpg
Bruce Gideos, floor managing director at Pierre’s Place, in Chesterfield, N.H., prints out Powerball tickets on Thursday, November. iii, 2022. The Powerball jackpot climbed over $1.v billion on Th after no one won Wednesday’s drawing.

Kristopher Radder/The Brattleboro Reformer via AP

Similarly, everyone in Utah wanting a lottery ticket must drive to Idaho or Wyoming, the 2 nearest states to the Table salt Lake City metro surface area, where most of the population resides. Lotteries accept long been banned in Utah amid stiff opposition to gambling past leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known widely as the Mormon church. The faith has its headquarters in Table salt Lake City and the bulk of lawmakers and more than half of the state’s residents vest to the religion.

In Malad, Idaho, thirteen miles (21 kilometers) from the Utah line, KJ’s Kwik Stop is taking advantage of Powerball’s absenteeism in Utah, advertizing directly to Utah residents to cross over for tickets. “Just because Utah doesn’t participate in the lottery doesn’t hateful you can’t!” their website read recently.

KJ’south sold hundreds of Powerball tickets to Utah residents on Th lonely, said Cassie Rupp, a Kwik Finish cashier.



Can you lot boost your odds of winning the Powerball jackpot?
06:45

“Everybody wants to be part of the scene”

In Alaska, when oil prices slumped in recent years, legislative proposals to generate acquirement through lottery games, including possibly Powerball, faltered. A 2015 written report suggested almanac proceeds from a statewide lottery could be effectually $8 million only cautioned such a lottery could negatively bear on charitable gaming activities such as raffles.

Anchorage podcast host Keith Gibbons was in New York before this week but forgot to buy a Powerball ticket, even though he didn’t know the size of the jackpot. His response when told it could be $ane.5 billion: “I demand a ticket.”

He believes even though Alaska is extremely diverse — Anchorage Schoolhouse Commune students speak more than 100 languages besides English in their homes — offering Powerball would appeal to everyone.

“There’s a niggling bit of everybody hither, and so when you bring things similar that, it doesn’t just speak to our civilisation, it speaks to all cultures because everybody wants coin, everybody wants to win, everybody wants to be role of the scene,” Gibbons said.

Not anybody agrees.

Harmful “waste of money”

Bob Endsley is no fan of Powerball. He says Alaskans shouldn’t take the opportunity to buy tickets. “It’s a waste matter of money,” said Endsley, also finding fault with the taxes that have to be paid on winnings and the increasing jackpots.

Taking a break from shoveling snow off his sidewalk, the Anchorage man said he once won $ten,000 in a Canadian lottery. Merely information technology was then long ago, he said, that he doesn’t remember what he did with the windfall other than “paid taxes.”

Hawaii joins Utah as the two states prohibiting all forms of gambling. Measures to plant a Hawaii land lottery or allow casinos are periodically introduced in the Legislature but routinely neglect in commission.

Opponents say legalized gambling would disproportionately damage Hawaii’s low-income communities and encourage gambling addictions. Some argue the absence of casinos allows Hawaii to maintain its status equally a family-friendly destination. Gambling is popular among Hawaii residents, however, with Las Vegas one of their superlative vacation destinations.

  • Battle over legalizing online sports betting in California heating up
  • Maryland mobile sports betting gets a push afterward sportsbook licenses become rolling approval
  • New Bailiwick of jersey eyes extending robust online bet market some other 10 years

Wearing a University of Alabama cap, John Jones of Montgomery, Alabama, bought a Powerball ticket on Thursday in Georgia. He voted for an Alabama lottery in 1999 and said he hopes lawmakers there try over again. A retired painter, Jones said he normally doesn’t buy a lottery ticket, but decided to take a chance.

He said many Alabamians seem to be doing the aforementioned at the Georgia store. “I fifty-fifty met some friends over here,” said Jones, 67.


Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-states-have-powerball/

Check Also

Operations Maturity: Achieving Business Value from Digital Transformation

Operations Maturity: Achieving Business Value from Digital Transformation

By adopting the power of modernistic technology and the cyberspace, organizations can enhance their business …