State National Lotteries

The US lotteries are operated by each state individually and as such are subjected to their jurisdiction laws. It is only recently that all 43 states modified and corrected their constitutions in a manner legalizing lotteries. In addition all 3 U.S. territories, the Puerto Rico, the District of Colombia, and the US Virgin Islands, all have Lottery.

In fact there is no National Lottery of USA only the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), which is the distributor of a variety of lottery-based games. Though most U.S. states belong to MUSL and offer different lottery games on its behalf, they are also entitled as state lotteries to offer individual games valid only within their jurisdiction.

USA State Lotteries

The USA has no national law allowing the creation of a national lottery and since lottery was banned in the USA up until after the Second World War, each state interested in an additional source of money had to amend its constitution in order to allow the forming of a state lottery. Among the US states and territories only 7 do not have state lotteries (Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Mississippi, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.

Historically the US had used lotteries to finance a variety of project but due to misusage of lottery it was banned by 1900, following a message sent by President Benjamin Harrison to the Congress insisting on an action made against lotteries. It was only in 1964 when the first US state of New Hampshire made an amendment to its laws approving the use of lottery.

California Lottery - example to a National Lottery

An example for a state lottery is the California State Lottery. Only in 1984, 20 years after the first state to make an amendment to its constitution, allowing lottery and after more the 58% of the voters authorized the establishment of a lottery operator with a guarantee to give at least 34% of its income to various education programs. Some states, much like California, designate a specific percent of the revenues for a specific cause, for example the North Carolina Education lottery or Georgia Lottery also dedicating third of their income for education purposes.

Other states only designate the money into a fund where it is decided how the money should be further distributed. The California State Lottery offers some games distinct only to California such as Make Me a Millionaire but most of the games offered in California or in many of the other states are games that are operated by the MUSL such as Powerball, Mega Millions, Ca$hola, Hot Lotto and so on.

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