LOTTERY PAYOUTS: Nobody in Pennsylvania has won one of the huge multistate lotteries recently, but it isn’t for lack of trying.
We’ve done our share to push several jackpots over $400 million with nothing to show for it.
That’s why it was heartening to see some fascinating facts from the Center for Rural Pennsylvania on Pennsylvania Lottery prize payouts for the 2012-13 fiscal year.
The center analyzed data from the Pennsylvania Lottery and produced a handy map that shows how much money was paid out in prizes, broken out by county.
It surprised us to learn that $8,137,439 was paid out in prizes in McKean County alone in 2012-13. In Elk County, $9,170,527 was paid out in prizes. In Potter County, winnings totaled $3,224,089, and in Cameron County, lottery players won $2,693,873.
With that much money floating around our region, you’d think we would know at least one big winner, but we don’t.
Or maybe we do, and they’re just not saying. Could this be what’s called “quiet money?”
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SPIRITS SALES: Another set of facts and figures put together by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania is a county-by-county breakdown of wine and liquor sales at state stores and how much those sales increased between the 2008-09 fiscal year and the 2012-13 fiscal year.
For example, the data shows that state wine and spirits store sales in McKean County increased 7 percent from 2008-09 to 2012-13. In Elk County, sales increased 9.3 percent over the same period, and in Cameron County, 3 percent. Potter County’s sales were unchanged.
Another map shows per capita wine and liquor store sales. You might be interested to know that wine and liquor sales in McKean County in fiscal 2012-13 amounted to $94 for each man, woman and child. The per capita sales figure for Elk County was $80, while Potter County’s was $69.
Those figures sound like a lot of imbibing is going on in our vicinity until you compare them with more-urban counties.
Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, had per capita wine and liquor sales of $212 in 2012-13, Erie County came in at $156 and Montgomery County outside of Philadelphia tippled at a rate of $241 per person.
Some people might think those figures indicate that our state’s urban centers drive people to drink.
Others could deduce they mean that our rural brethren, like us, prefer beer.
