(Corrects Wisconsin and West Virginia labels.)

Lotteries have the longest odds of any form of legal betting—and yet they’re a consistent moneymaker, generating roughly $50 billion in 2010 sales for the 43 states that operate them. The Bloomberg Rankings Sucker Score represents the portion of personal income a state’s residents lose on lotteries.

Here's how it's calculated: [(Total annual ticket sales - total annual prize payout) / total annual personal income of the state’s residents] x 10,000