Lotto 6aus49 in Bremen

Bremen is small, in every respect. €25 million in play volume in 2024 is by far the lowest figure among all 16 states. Per capita, that is €35, also rank 16, the lowest in Germany. As a share of disposable income, Bremen ranks 14th at 0.13 percent, level with Hamburg and Bavaria. At first glance: the most inconspicuous state in the whole statistic.

At second glance, Bremen gets interesting. With 2.8 large wins per million residents, the two-city state did surprisingly well in 2024, in the upper third of the large-win statistic. With such a small play volume, that is a mix of luck and a small sample size, and next year it may look completely different. Still, it is surprising for a state that otherwise often appears at the bottom of the numbers.

Economically, Bremen is a special case that helps explain the Lotto picture. In GDP per capita, Bremen lands second after Hamburg at €59,785. But this high economic output per resident does not reflect everyday life for Bremen residents. It is heavily lifted by commuters from Lower Saxony who work in Bremen but do not live there.

The other Bremen reality is shown by the poverty report of the Paritätischer welfare association. In 2024, the poverty rate in the state of Bremen was 25.9 percent, by far the highest of all federal states. One in four people is affected. Child poverty is especially stark at 41.4 percent, also the highest figure in Germany. Bremen is therefore very rich by GDP and very poor by the actually disposable income of its residents. The low per-capita Lotto figure mirrors that reality too: those who have little spend little on Lotto.

What makes Bremen special in Lotto terms has nothing to do with size. Bremer Toto und Lotto GmbH is the lead company of the Deutscher Lotto- und Totoblock, the nationwide association of all 16 state lottery companies. From its seat on Schwachhauser Heerstraße in Bremen, the national Lotto structure is coordinated, common game rules are defined and the chair is held on a rotating basis. The smallest state with the lowest play volume is therefore, of all places, at the centre of Germany's lottery organisation.

If you hand in a ticket in Bremen, you fund a small lottery company with outsized importance. Bremen follows the ministry model for distributing Lotto money: proceeds go directly to the state of Bremen, which distributes them across departments through the budget. Like Hamburg, Bremen is also part of the BINGO! environmental lottery, whose proceeds specifically benefit nature and environmental protection.