Why Has Maine Never Had a Powerball Jackpot Winner?

Even though some people are casual lottery players, only buying a ticket to Powerball or Mega Millions when the jackpot gets massive, there are even more people that are die-hard players.

These are the people who never fail to play their numbers for fear that those numbers might been drawn on the one night when they failed to get a ticket.  As they say, you can't win if you don't play.

Given the fact that there are tens of thousands of those people who play every single week (or, in reality, three times a week), doesn't it seem a little strange that no one from Maine has ever won the Powerball jackpot?

Powerball, which has been around in some form since 1988, gives players a chance at hundreds of millions of dollars.  Sometimes, the jackpot even jumps to over a BILLION DOLLARS!

Most likely, it all comes down to numbers.  But, then again, doesn't everything involving the lottery come down to numbers?

Basically, the amount of people playing Powerball here in Maine is such a small number, when compared to the total number of people playing, it makes us getting a winner very unlikely.

While we are not sure how many people play the game during a given period, we can look at the total population of Maine versus the total population of the states and territories where the game is played.  When you count up the population of all of the states (45 in total) and the territories where Powerball is played, it is about 330 million.  The total population of Maine is about 1.5 million.  So, only about a half percent of the people who could play the game live in Maine.

Additionally, Maine is a somewhat more recent adopter of the game.  Powerball, which started as Lotto America in 1988, has only been available in Maine since 2004.

It is important to note that Maine is not the only state or territory where there has never been a winning ticket sold.  Others include North Dakota, Mississippi, Wyoming, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Do you play on a regular basis?  What's the most you've won?

Learn more about the game on the Powerball website and please play responsibly.