Where are the Winners?

The short answer? They’re everywhere. We may be known as the land of 10,000 lakes, but did you know we are also home to an average of 86,000 Minnesota Lottery winners each and every day? Winners are in every region, every county, and every city throughout Minnesota.

However, a common misconception is that lottery players tend to think winners are everywhere except where they live or where they buy their tickets. Players in the Twin Cities think all the winners are in Greater Minnesota and players in Greater Minnesota think all the big winners come from the Twin Cities. We thought it’s time to put this myth to bed, so we had our data experts do some digging to find out where our winners actually are.

Take a look at the maps of Minnesota below. The first map shows where lottery tickets were purchased on Aug. 4, 2023. The second map shows where winning tickets were redeemed on the same day. As you can see, the maps look nearly identical.

An analysis of winner location reflects proportionate winners to sales volumes across the state.

In a recent two month span of sales vs. winner data, approximately 45 percent of all lottery sales occurred in the 7-county Twin Cities metro area. By contrast 49 percent of lottery prize winners over $10,000 were at retailers located in the Twin Cities metro area.

Lottery sales in Greater Minnesota accounted for 55 percent of all sales, while 51 percent of lottery prize winners over $10,000 occurred outside the metro area.

Based on this recent two-month analysis, is the Twin Cities Metro area considered luckier than the rest of the state? After reviewing the sales and winner information for the past two months, we found that the Twin Cities metro area is not any luckier than the rest of the state. The reason it might seem that way is because more people live in the metro area. More people equal more sales, and the number of winners is linked to how many tickets are sold in that area.

So, there you have it. Hopefully that answers some questions, addresses some concerns, and puts to bed some misconceptions about who lottery winners are and where they buy their tickets. While we may not have “lucky” retailers, the work we do would not be possible without all 3,000+ of our fantastic retail partners across Minnesota. We are lucky that we get to work with them in pursuit of our mission to raise money for programs that positively impact the lives of all Minnesotans.