One of these states will shortly start a lottery. Infographic: Mint.com

There are six USA states that don’t allow lotteries. Among them, the three states of Mississippi, Alabama and Utah have used religious objections to stop any efforts to start a lottery.

However one of these - Mississippi - will now become the 45th state to offer a lottery, as early as Dec. 1.

Gerald Gilbert, vice chairman of the Mississippi Lottery Corporation, said the newly-formed lottery board hopes to have scratch-off tickets available to sell to the public by the end of 2019..

Other games, such as multi-state games, will be in operation by the first quarter of 2020, he predicted.

Gerald Gilbert, vice chairman of the Mississippi Lottery Corporation.

While Mississippi has made the change, lottery tickets are still not available in Nevada, a state well known for gambling of all kinds.

Victor Matheson, an economics professor at Holy Cross College and an expert in lotteries, says the casinos don't want competition from a state-run lottery.

"Since they have so much power, they have successfully blocked a lottery,”

You still can't buy a lottery ticket in the gambling capital of the world, Nevada, USA.

So why did the lottery spread across the rest of the USA and leave these states closed?

Apparently state legislators argued that businesses near the borders were losing sales to out-of-state competitors who could offer tickets.

Nevada residents cross the border to play the California games.

Both Alaska and Hawaii are states where that geographic competition argument doesn't carry much weight, but even so, neither of them sell lottery tickets.

Source: CNN Money

READ MORE: These US States Don't Have A Lottery. There's A Lot Of Border Crossing Going On