You Didn’t Win Powerball, but You Did Help Maine’s Bank Account

I have a big fat loosing Powerball ticket sitting on my desk. Heck, it was fun to dream for a little while about the 'what ifs' of winning $579 million and what great things I could do! I would have been VERY generous with the money if I had won. But every Maine lottery ticket, winner or loser helps Maine’s General Fund. Winning tickets were bought in Arizona and Missouri.

Our loosing tickets are not a total loss. Sales from those Powerball tickets and other Maine Lottery games help out the state. Maine collects an average of 32 cents per ticket on draw games like Powerball. The state also collects about 18 cents on every dollar spent on instant scratch off games. That money goes into the General Fund.

Last year the Maine Lottery transferred a record amount of money to the state. For the fiscal year that ended on June 30th, that worked about to be about $53.7 million to the general fund. See, it’s not a total loss and you had fun dreaming, didn’t ya?