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USA Lottery Reviews

The year each state lottery began

New Hampshire started the modern US state lottery in 1964. Most states followed in the 1970s through the 1990s. The year below is the one given on the state lottery’s own pages.

Quick answer: of 20 verified states, 3 have 1988 (Florida, Virginia, Wisconsin).

By Daniel Whitfield, Editor · Data last verified November 3, 2026 · 20 of 48 lottery states verified (42%)

StateYearVerifiedSource
New York1967November 3, 2026State page
Connecticut1971November 2, 2026State page
Pennsylvania1971November 2, 2026State page
Massachusetts1972November 3, 2026State page
Michigan1972November 3, 2026State page
Illinois1974November 3, 2026State page
Maine1974November 2, 2026State page
Delaware1975November 2, 2026State page
Washington1982November 3, 2026State page
Iowa1985November 2, 2026State page
Oregon1985November 2, 2026State page
Montana1986November 2, 2026State page
Florida1988November 3, 2026State page
Virginia1988November 3, 2026State page
Wisconsin1988November 2, 2026State page
Indiana1989November 3, 2026State page
Minnesota1990November 2, 2026State page
Louisiana1991November 2, 2026State page
Georgia1993November 3, 2026State page
North Carolina2006November 3, 2026State page

Some lotteries give the year the law passed and others the year sales began. The state page notes which where it matters. We list a state only after reading an official page that states the figure, so missing states are not yet verified. See corrections to report an error.

Frequently asked questions

Which states have year of 1988?
Of the 20 states we have verified, 3 have 1988: Florida, Virginia, Wisconsin. Each is linked to its official source in the table above.
Which states have year of 1971?
Of the 20 states we have verified, 2 have 1971: Connecticut, Pennsylvania. Each is linked to its official source in the table above.
Which states have year of 1972?
Of the 20 states we have verified, 2 have 1972: Massachusetts, Michigan. Each is linked to its official source in the table above.
Which states have year of 1974?
Of the 20 states we have verified, 2 have 1974: Illinois, Maine. Each is linked to its official source in the table above.
How current is this data?
It was last verified on November 3, 2026. 20 of 48 lottery states are verified so far, and a state is listed only after we read an official page stating the figure.

Method, licence and citation

Method
Each figure was read from an official page: the state lottery, its regulator, state statute, the state revenue department, or the IRS. We list a figure only if we read it on such a page. If we could not verify a state, it shows a dash instead of an estimate. Nothing comes from news articles, aggregators or memory. Data last verified November 3, 2026. How we score and source · Changelog.
Licence
Free to reuse under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0): you may copy, share and adapt it, including commercially, if you credit USA Lottery Reviews and link to this page.
Cite as
USA Lottery Reviews, “When each state lottery started”, https://usalotteryreviews.com/data/when-each-state-lottery-started, data verified November 3, 2026. Download all state rules as CSV.
Corrections
If a figure is wrong or out of date, write to corrections@usalotteryreviews.com. We correct it and record it in the changelog.

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