The lottery is always an interesting endeavor that is packed with the most surprising of facts. In this article, we will be sharing 7 amazing things you probably never knew about the lottery.

 1. Do you know that Americans spend more on the lottery than all other forms of entertainment?

How surprising does this sound to you? Well, according to the North American Association of States and Provincial Lotteries, it has been reported that Americans spent $70.1 billion on lottery tickets in 2014!

On the other hand, we spend a combined amount of only $63 million on all other leisure activities like video games, recorded music, sports tickets, books, and even movie tickets.

 2. A large proportion of winners exhaust their winnings out of excessive generosity

Typically, it is believed that so many lottery winners exhaust their prize by lavishing it on luxurious items like cars, holiday getaways, fancy houses etc. However, according to Charles Conrad who is a senior financial planner with Szarka Financial, he explains that the major issue is that a lot of winners are actually too generous and they tend to give away the money to friends, relatives and loved ones.

 3. Do you know that popular French writer, Voltaire, was a classical lottery winner?

During his time, Voltaire collaborated with a mathematician - Charles Marie de La Condamine. Together, they figured out a loophole in the French national lottery. It was reported that the government allocated huge prizes for the lottery every month.

There was however an error in calculation and this meant that there were bigger payouts than the worth of all the tickets that were sold. With this, the duo along with other gamblers were able to repeatedly manipulate the market and accumulate immense winnings. At the end of the day, Voltaire was left with about half a million francs.

 4. The lottery has expanded geometrically to almost all the American states from 1980.

As at 1980, the lottery was active in just 14 states. However, it has greatly expanded to 43 states of the 50 states now. The potential to generate additional revenue for state funding helped motivate the states to consider lottery laws.

 5. Lottery generates more revenue from the poor

Do you know that a North Carolina report from NC Policy Watch showed that the people living in the poorest counties purchase the most lottery tickets? As it appears, most of those who put the money for lottery tickets are on the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder.

 6. A particular Powerball payout awarded 110 second-prize winners

On the 30th of March, 2005, the Powerball drawing known as the "fortune cookie payout", had110 second-prize winners. The winners divided the jackpot of $19.4 million in different portions. 89 winners received $100,000 and the remaining 21 were awarded 500,000 each (because they had Power Play selections). 

 7. A bartender once won $17,500 from a tip

 Do you know that a 25 years old bartender once received a pair of Keno tickets as a tip from a patron? Eventually, one of the tickets turned out to be a winning ticket worth $17,500.