Most Southcoast Communities Spend More On Lottery Tickets Than They Get Back

A portion of each lottery ticket sold in Massachusetts goes back to the cities and towns where the ticket was sold.  Which Southcoast communities are winning?  Which are losing?

Last year, about $900 million was used to repair roads, fund school programs, hire police officers, and pay for other services. The local aid is distributed according to a formula based on a community’s population and property values.

A new search tool set up on Boston.com allows you to search your town to see if it is getting back what it puts in to support the fund. I have searched through all of the Southcoast cities and towns to see how they have fared with this program.

Most of the towns here on the Southcoast are spending more on lottery tickets than they are getting back in state aid.

Wareham

Lottery sales contributed: $5,460,078

State aid received: $1,673,496

Marion

Lottery sales contributed: $347,837

State aid received: $190,849

Rochester

Lottery sales contributed: $356,161

State aid received: $359,241

Mattapoisett

Lottery sales contributed: $476,435

State aid received: $342,810

Fairhaven

Lottery sales contributed: $2,363,038

State aid received: $1,907,302

New Bedford

Lottery sales contributed: $17,053,571

State aid received: $19,457,251

Acushnet

Lottery sales contributed: $899,996

State aid received: $1,282,445

Dartmouth

Lottery sales contributed: $2,969,371

State aid received: $2,132,179

Westport

Lottery sales contributed: $2,215,985

State aid received: $1,029,055

Fall River

Lottery sales contributed: $13,631,148

State aid received: $20,156,220