The Luckiest Places in the USA: New York and East Coast States Dominate US Fortune Rankings; Hawaii, Utah, and Tennessee Hit Rock Bottom
With New York, Delaware, and New Jersey all landing in the top eight, there is plenty of representation for those whose zip codes begin with a 0 or a 1. However, it’s tiny Rhode Island that ultimately leads the way across the entire nation as the absolute luckiest state.
New York residents are officially among the luckiest in the country, finding themselves at the forefront of a fortunate cluster of East Coast states. According to in-depth statistical research from Ignition Casino, those running on Eastern Time have been judged to be among the most blessed in the USA.
With New York, Delaware, and New Jersey all landing in the top eight, there is plenty of representation for those whose zip codes begin with a 0 or a 1. However, it’s tiny Rhode Island that ultimately leads the way across the entire nation as the absolute luckiest state.
On the flip side, the research highlighted that island life might require making your own luck; Hawaii ranks as the most unlucky state in the US. It is joined in the bottom 10 by Utah, Tennessee, and Texas. The lack of gaming opportunities per capita and jackpot winners restrict how lucky some states can be.
What makes a "lucky" state?
When we talk about luck, we aren't just looking at random chance. To define what makes a state fortunate, this study looks at a combination of real-world opportunities and cultural habits. We break luck down into a few distinct categories:
Gaming & Jackpots: Where the big winners live, and how many major lottery jackpots have been claimed.
Weather Events: The absence of freak environmental anomalies or costly natural disasters.
Superstitions: How much the local population actively tries to manifest good fortune through their daily beliefs and habits.
How are the luckiest states calculated?
The aim of this research is to establish and rank the luckiest and most unlucky states in the USA - and, by extension, zip codes, given that the opening number of each zip code corresponds to a specific region within the country.
To build on the definition of luck outlined above, four distinct criteria were analyzed to give a comprehensive final score. Each metric was given a weighted, standardised score out of a total of 100 points:
Wins (scored out of 40): Simply, this measures how often people win in each state. To do this, all Powerball winners since 1992 and Mega Millions jackpot winners since 1996 were collated, then divided per 1,000,000 residents in each state.
Gaming (scored out of 30): This measures the opportunity people have to test their luck. To calculate this, the total number of casinos was recorded against the population density per casino within the state.
Anomalies (scored out of 20): How likely are you to be caught out by an unfortunate, freak event? This criteria tracks the number of weather events that have caused losses of $1bn or more since 1980, as well as weather-related injuries and deaths within the last 10 years.
Superstitions (scored out of 10): This looks at those who try to manifest luck through their actions. We measured each state’s Google Trends score for the search terms ‘lucky charms’, ‘horoscopes’, and ‘win the lottery’.
Each state was then ranked based on the combined scores of these criteria to crown the luckiest places in the United States.
Related News:
- Summer Slump Hits New York Sportsbooks as June Revenue Plummets Below $150m Threshold
- iGaming Soars in Michigan as Online Casino Gains Offset Summer Sports Betting Slump
