New Yorkers know that they have Lady Liberty and their side. But we can add in Lady Luck, too. A new report by slotsource.com, a gambling information website, found that out of all 50 states, New York is the luckiest, with Minnesota and Utah in second and third place, respectively. Alabama, on the other hand? Let’s just say residents of the Cotton State may as well go walk under a ladder while looking at a black cat in a shattered mirror (it sits at number 50 out of 50).
The study in question evaluated six metrics of luck: number of Powerball wins, Jackpot wins, happiness level, number of injuries from extreme weather, deaths by unintentional causes and average amount of rainfall per year. Let’s break that down. Number of Powerball and Jackpot wins are pretty self-explanatory: Since the two lotteries began, New York has had 12 Powerball winners, the 10th highest, and 37 Mega Millions Jackpot winners, leading the nation in that category. To determine level of happiness, slotsource.com used the World Population Review’s Happiest States of 2020 report, which takes into account metrics such as number of work hours, job security, adult depression, income growth and weather. On a scale from 0-100, with 0 being “least happy” and 100, “most happy,” New York scored a slightly-above-average 57.35.
On the other end of the spectrum from winning the lottery and being happy, the study looked at the likelihood of negative things happening to New Yorkers. New York saw just 14 injuries because of hazardous weather in 2019 (several states had none, but Alabama had 109 and Ohio had a whopping 220), and has had 129 deaths by unintentional causes over the past five years (comparatively, Florida had 318). Lastly, New York averages 4`1.8 inches of rainfall per year, far higher than Utah (12.2), but lower than Louisiana (60.1).
And so, though New York only ranked number one in one category, its average luck score was high enough to win it the title of luckiest state in the union. But what about the luckiest city in New York State? There hasn’t been a study done on that yet, but we’d bet a face-up penny that Saratoga Springs would top the charts. Trust us, we’re New Yorkers.
