Most state media sources (for example see here and here) are reporting that for the first-quarter of 2010 the Arkansas lottery ranked fifth in the nation in per-capita sales.  La Fleur’s magazine reports that Arkansans have spent an average of $38 per person for the first three months of this year.

I’ve expressed before that I am not a huge fan of the lottery because it is a regressive way for the state to raise money and because the way scholarships are being awarded is a joke (see here and here).

Naturally, fans of the lottery saw the ranking as a wonderful measure of success, while opponents viewed the rankings with disdain.  I think, however, that fans would be even happier, and opponents even more fruistrated, if these numbers were put into context.

Here’s the rankings in order. I have also added the average median income of each state in parantheses:

1. Massachusetts ($65,401)
2. Georgia ($50,861)
3. New York ($56,033)
4. Connecticut ($68,595)
5. Arkansas ($38,815)
6. Tennessee ($43,614)
7. New Jersey ($70,378)
8. Maine ($46,581)
9. South Carolina ($44,625)
10. Pennsylvania ($50,713)

Now, while I don’t know the per-capita numbers for every state (I’ve looked but to no avail), Arkansas sticks out like a sore thumb as the poorest state on this list with the lowest median income.  Some news stories did cite that Connecticutt, at number 4, collected an average of $42 per person during the first quarter.  Compared to Arkansas, that’s only an 11% increase in per-capita sales, but their median income is 77% percent higher than Arkansas’.  Clearly, if we consider lottery sales as a percent of income, Arkansas is doing far better (or worse, depending on your view) than Connecticutt.

If anyone has access to the per-capita numbers for everyone on the top ten list, please weigh in.  It would be interesting to see how we measure up to the other states when relative income levels are added to the mix.