Music & Games
Missourians lose $23.4M to lottery, sweepstakes scams since 2020, study finds
October 30, 2025
Missouri ranks ninth in the nation for lottery and sweepstakes scam losses, with residents losing an estimated $23.4 million since 2020, according to a new study by Vegas Insider based on Federal Trade Commission data.
That figure equals about $1,500 per reported case. Nationally, consumers have lost more than $660 million to such scams over the past five years, including $351 million in 2024 alone.
The study found that AI-driven impersonation fraud has surged 148 percent year over year, with scammers using fake prize notifications, phone and mail fee requests, and AI-generated lottery impersonations.
"AI makes it effortless to fake official voices, winning numbers and even local postmarks," Vegas Insider analyst said in the report. "If you didn't enter, you didn't win."
The report noted that Missouri's large number of rural households and reliance on phone and mail communication make residents more vulnerable to traditional scams that mimic official correspondence.
The Missouri Lottery emphasized it never contacts winners by phone, text or mail to request money or banking information. The Missouri Attorney General's Office advises residents to be skeptical of any prize offer that requires payment or personal information and to verify claims directly with official sources.
The full study, including safety guidelines and state-by-state data, is available on the Vegas Insider website.
