I believe that a disproportionate number of Hoosier Lottery prizes go to residents of Indianapolis/Marion County. Indianapolis/Marion County is the state capital and the home of the Hoosier Lottery. I asked the Hoosier Lottery why this was the case and was told more prize winners come from Indianapolis/Marion County because it is the most populous region in the state. So I did a little comparision. These figures are from the U.S Census department.
Marion County has a population of approximately 865,000 people. I could not find a breakdown on adults versus children
I then took the populations of Indiana's 4 northern most counties (i.e those in and just outside the Chicago Metropolitian area) and the population of Indiana's 2nd largerst city Fort Wayne.
Lake County has approx 494,000 people
Porter County has approx 160,000 people
LaPorte County has approx 110,000 people
St. Joseph County (the city of South Bend) has approx 266,000 people
Allen County (the city of Fort Wayne) has approx 347,000 people
The total population of these 5 counties is approx 1,377,000. (Roughly half again as many as Marion County and more that 6 times the geographic size.)
Marion = 865,000
5 counties combined = 1,377,000
Then I went to the Hoosier Lottery website and compared the total number of Top Tier Prize winners on all Hoosier Lottery games. (I will not list every one but I will list only those that stood out to me.)
First the Hoosier Lottery (including it's original incarnation as Lotto Cash:
Marion County 35 winners
Lake County 5 winners
Porter County 2 winners
LaPorte County 5 winners
St Joseph County 6 winners
Allen County 8 winners
Marion County = 35 winners
5 counties combined = 26
Then I looked at Scratch Off games. Here's a couple that really stood out:
Bankroll:
Marion 5 winners
Lake 1 winner
Porter 0 winners
LaPorte 0 winner
St. Joseph 2 winners
Allen 1 winner
Marion = 5
5 counties combined = 4
Crown Jewels:
Marion 5
Lake 0
Porter 0
LaPorte 0
St Joseph 0
Allen 1
Marion = 5
5 counties combined = 1
Tax Free Millions:
Marion 4
Lake 0
Porter 0
LaPorte 0
St Joseph 1
Allen 1
Marion = 4
5 counties combined = 2
Two Million Cash:
Marion 4
Lake1
Porter 0
LaPorte 0
St Joseph 0
Allen 1
Marion = 4
5 counties combined = 1
In these 4 scratch off games the grand totals are:
Marion = 18
5 counties combined = 8
That's more than a 2 to 1 ratio of winners in Marion County compared to the most popululous regions in the state with only 2/3rd's of the population and less that 1/6th of the gepographic area.
For Hoosier Lotto it is 35 to 26 with the same demographics.
This is just raw data without sales per capita. And it is just 5 Hoosier Lottery games. But I would love to hear what others here think about these numbers. Agree...disagree...no opinion please post your thoughts.
Jim