For twenty hours a day Monday to Saturday and fifteen hours on Sunday, roughly every four minutes a new round of Keno begins in Massachusetts.
For the uninitiated:
Typically played in places people may have some time to kill - bars, convenience stores - you can choose your numbers, place your bid, and then wait for the results. We asked the Massachusetts Lottery Commission for their statewide list of Keno retailers, and they returned 136 pages with the more than 7000 locations licensed to sell Keno tickets.
Since 2006, sales from Keno have increased by over $54 million and, save for a swath of Western Massachusetts, the game can now be played in nearly every municipality in the state.
We also asked The Lottery Commission for total sales reported by zip code for the last eight years. While access to Keno has increased, the same few handful of towns have carried most of the playing: Dracut, Malden, Methuen, Peabody, Quincy, and Salisbury.
2006
2014
- White: No available data/Keno locations
- Purple: $0 - $200,000
- Blue: $200,000 - $500,000
- Green: $500,000 - $1 million
- Yellow: $1 - $2 million
- Orange: $2 - $5 million
- Red: Over $5 million
While these numbers don’t reflect all lottery sales, including Mega Millions drawings or instant tickets, but they do begin to suggest some questions when considered alongside the MA Lotto’s list of community support, which supposedly details how much was given from lottery revenue to each town.
Quincy (02169) drew in $16,316,103 in Keno sales last year and received $16,532,568 in lottery-drawn community aid. By comparison, Methuen, which had the second highest Keno sales at $14,361,706, earned only $4,707,570 in aid.
Take a look at your community and see how much Keno alone dragged in. Then find your town on MA Lotto’s list of community support, and see how it compares.
If you find anything interesting, let us know at info@muckrock.com.
Image via Massachusetts State Lottery
