Harrisburg Named Lottery Capital of Pennsylvania by LuckyLotto

Harrisburg has just been named the lottery capital of Pennsylvania. According to a study conducted by the lottery information website LuckyLotto, Harrisburg has more lottery terminals per capita than any other city in Pennsylvania.

Known by most of the world as the Capital of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg has now been dubbed the Lottery Capital of Pennsylvania. Harrisburg, which lies on the east bank of the Susquehanna River, is not only Pennsylvania's capital city, but is also home to the Pennsylvania Farm Show.

LuckyLotto, an online lottery website specializing in lottery news and information conducted a study of the lottery in Pennsylvania that showed that Harrisburg is different than other places. LuckyLotto reported that Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, has more lottery terminals per capita than any other city in Pennsylvania.

This comes as a surprise to Brian James of Harrisburg. "I hear people winning pretty often, but I didn't think it was any different than other places."

Other citizens are not at all surprised about Harrisburg being named the lottery capital of Pennsylvania, attributing it to the large senior citizen population. "We have a large senior citizen population which dumps a ton of money into the lottery" says Chuck LaPenta of Harrisburg.

According to the official Pennsylvania lottery website, Harrisburg has 154 lottery terminals. That is whopping 13.5 lottery terminals per square mile.

With all of these places to buy lottery tickets, its no surprise that Harrisburg is home to some recent lotto winners. In May of 2008, Janet Davis, of Harrisburg, won the $500,000 top prize for the Glittering Diamonds scratch off game. Davis bought her ticket on April 11th at the 7-Eleven on Walnut Street in Harrisburg.

Less than two months earlier, fourteen Pennsylvania co-workers split a $200,000 Powerball prize. This group of lottery players nicknamed "The Lucky 14" won the February 9th drawing and received their ceremonial check at Turkey Hill in Harrisburg.

While it may seem more likely that well known cities Pittsburgh and Philadelphia would have more lottery terminals per capita, that is not the case. Pittsburgh has 548 lottery terminals and Philadelphia has a whopping 694 lottery terminals. However, Pittsburgh only has 9.87 terminals per square mile and Philadelphia only has 5.14 terminals per square mile. This is much less than Harrisburg's 13.5 lottery terminals per square mile. In fact, big cities Erie and Scranton were also outperformed by Harrisburg when it came to lottery terminals per capita.

With the current state of the national economy, many may be surprised to hear that the lottery is booming in Harrisburg. However, Harrisburg is home to major industry and national firms including IBM, Hershey Foods, Tyco Electronics Corp. and Rite Aid Corp, and therefore retains a stable economy. This strong and stable economy allows Harrisburg residents to continue to play the lottery all year long.

The truth about the lottery is that someone always wins and people always hope that it will be them. No matter what the state of the economy is, people always have hope that they will win the jackpot.

No matter what the reasons for the immense popularity of the lottery in Harrisburg, LuckyLotto.com is pleased to name Harrisburg the "Lottery Capital of Pennsylvania."