An online lottery involves drawing and selling numbered tickets. The winners of the draw are awarded prizes. The lottery games are played through the Internet or through a mobile application that can be downloaded to desktops and smartphones. Computer programs moderate the lottery games and provide a convenient and safe online gaming environment. The benefits of online lottery services include real-time gaming, cashless transactions, and digital payments.
The online lottery market is divided into different stages along the value chain, and is further subdivided into platforms and key players. Each stage of the value chain has different driving factors and challenges. Nevertheless, there are several factors that determine the overall success or failure of an online lottery. These factors are described below. Before participating in an online lottery, players should analyze the validity of the lottery scheme they are considering.
While online lottery games are legal, there are still legal restrictions that states have put in place. For example, some states only allow residents to participate in online lottery games, while others allow anyone physically present in the state to participate. In addition, there are differences in the state of legality between online lottery games and lottery sales. Despite the legal hurdles, the US lottery landscape has been favorable in the past several years.
The Michigan Lottery introduced an online lottery service in January 2016, offering customers the option to buy tickets for the popular draw games Powerball, Mega Millions, Lotto 47, and Fantasy 5. According to Lottery Consultant Digital Gaming Group’s December 2016 report, the online lottery market was worth $8 million per week. Meanwhile, the brick-and-mortar lottery businesses achieved all-time records in sales.