Play The Lottery Online?

It can be more convenient but playing the lottery online is NOT always the best option.

There are various online lottery ticket sellers (TheLotter, OSA etc) who will sell you tickets for lottery games from around the world. That’s great – you can play in those big jackpot games that aren’t available in your country, right?

Yes you can. But boy do you pay for it.

Online ticket sellers are at the very least 50% more expensive. Some as much as 200%-300%+.

Yes they have to make a profit – but 300% (or more!) is obscene.

To put it another way. If you didn’t have to pay those charges, your chances of winning would be TRIPLED for exactly the same cost.

So before you blow your winning chances on overpriced tickets, here’s my advice…

1. Why Do You Want To Play That Lottery?

If you’re trying to buy tickets for another countries lottery, be clear on why you are playing that game.

It’s not wrong, so long as you have thought about your playing strategy, and chosen the best game (my tool gives you the lottery odds compared) and time to play.

2. Is There A Better Way To Play The Lottery Online?

Probably.

You might be able to buy tickets online on the official website for that lottery company. But this usually only applies to playing lottery games you can buy tickets for locally.

If you can, it’s extremely unlikely to cost any more than the standard ticket price. And may give you extra convenience such as being able to store a bunch of commonly used entries too.

See also Is It Better To Play Lottery Online or In-Store?

Alternatively there may be a syndicate you can join. A lottery syndicate will manage everything for you, and give you a better chance of winning by pooling entries.

It will cost you slightly more but with the benefit of pooling thrown in, it can mean way better value than buying from an online ticket agent. (These are the syndicates I have personally used and can recommend).

If you can’t buy direct, and there isn’t a syndicate available, AND you’re determined to play that particular lottery – then your only other option is compare prices of online lottery ticket agents.

Or to find a new pen pal who lives in that country!

What About Those ‘Free’ Online Lottery Games?

Whilst ‘free’ always sounds good – I don’t recommend these at all.

To be clear, I’m talking about those online only sites that just do ‘free’ lotto games. They are nothing to do with the official lottery companies. There used to be a good guide book about them (see Are The Free Online Lottery Sites Genuine?).

There are far less of these sites now than there used to be. For a good reason. Most of them were terrible.

Even the ones that are left have incredibly bad odds and make you endure lots of advertising (online and by email). You basically pay with your time.

If you can’t afford to play the official lottery games then by all means consider these. But read all of the terms and conditions very carefully first!

What About the Online Crypto Lotteries?

The online cryptocurrency lotteries are an interesting area. They come and go but are slowly growing.

Right now none of the Bitcoin or crypto lotto games are really good enough. That’s even if you have cryptocurrency available to enter them. If you don’t have cryptocurrency already then they’re just painfully complicated to even try to play.

23 Comments so far ↓

  • Ed Aslinger

    I play Georgia Lotto online. Usually, just Powerball. Sometimes I play pick 3, Pick 4. Georgia doesn’t play the “little” games online and it is very difficult for me to get out and buy tickets and collect winnings.

  • Bryant Simko

    Manny years ago I was playing the pick 4 on line from a company I think is called 5 Dimes.
    Why would I do this?
    Because the state only pays out at 50% for the pick 3 and pick 4.
    5 Dimes was paying out 90%
    Pick 3 in Ohio pays out 500 dollars – compare that to 900 dollars.
    Pick 4 straight in Ohio is 5000 dollars – compare that to 9000 dollars.
    The tickets for this win is still one dollar each.

  • Andrew

    Do online lottery ticket sellers operate legitimately such as thelotter? Do they really pay out big lottery wins and how do they really get access to official lottery tickets since most are restricted to be sold online e.g in USA?

    • LG

      Ultimately they use local agents in the countries for which they sell tickets – so somebody goes and buys a physical ticket. Small wins they claim and pay, but for big wins you may be supplied the ticket and required to claim in person (not exactly a big hardship of course), so check the small print if that matters. Personally I prefer the syndicate approach if you really want to play a particular overseas game as it tends to provide much better value for money than the ticket buying ‘courier services’.

  • Kester Chiwalo

    Is there a free Lottery that one can play and win without paying for anything. I am from Malawi in Africa.

  • Jose

    The Lotto Crusher System website sounded so promising but I ended up typing the words ‘lotto crusher system scams and complaints’ into a search engine only to come up with very little bad to say, and then I found your site. Do you really believe a mathematical solution cannot be found or for that matter has not been found to correctly predict winning numbers?

    • LG

      It depends what you mean by a mathematical solution. There is no software that can reliably predict or beat the lottery. That definitely does NOT exist. But it doesn’t stop lots of scammers making a fast buck out of selling software they claim can do that. You just have to wonder why they would be selling this wonderful software when they could just be using it themselves to win lotteries all over the world..!? “For the good of mankind” – I don’t think so 😉

      That doesn’t however mean that all lottery software is totally useless, or that all lotteries are perfectly random. There is the possbility of bias existing in draws, which may favour (or not) certain numbers. But nobody has yet proven a sufficient bias exists in any game that they have been able to take advantage of it. Partly because things change faster than such biases can be reliably detected (how often are the balls replaced? how often is the draw machine serviced and parts changed?).

      Remember, this is not really about numbers at all – we’re trying to guess which ping pong balls will pop out after bouncing around chaotically in a big barrel. There can never be any formula that says exactly what will happen next 🙂

  • Michael

    Do online lottery ticket sellers like theLotter.com really purchase real lottery tickets, and do they really pay lottery winners?

    • LG

      Some of them (such as TheLotter) do provide scans of the tickets in your account after you buy them. I haven’t heard any complaints of people not receiving winnings.

    • Michael

      Thank you for your reply but I still have a question concerning TheLotter. In their terms of use I read that they can claim my winnings on my behalf, is it possible in case it’s a large sum of money.

      • LG

        The terms say they can collect prizes on your behalf and pay it to your account, or you can travel and collect the prize yourself. So you have the choice. 🙂

  • Kwaz

    I live in IL. I found the best odds are buying one of each ticket. Because sometimes it’s the $5 ticket that wins a hundred and you never know which is ready to hit and buying many of one kind means you spend $30 to win once so you’re losing. I can’t prove anything just spent thousands because I’m disabled with an IQ of 180 and I’ve got to keep it occupied somehow. The biggest tip I can give is scan every ticket to make sure it’s a loser because particularly with Bingo I’ve almost thrown away hundreds because you miss one number!

    • LG

      Hey Kwaz

      It depends what type of game you’re playing. If you’re talking about the draw based games, you’re better off playing one game only versus spreading your entries over multiple draws/games. But if you’re playing scratch-off games, then it doesn’t really make much difference (assuming the odds of each game are the same).

      But good tip on scanning every ticket, even if you’ve already checked it – a lot of winning tickets do get thrown away because people fail to check the results correctly.

  • Larry

    I think buying lottery tickets online is a big rip-off. They probably take your money and don’t even buy the ticket for you. They just keep your money because they know the chances of you winning is a million to one.

  • Ahmed Kaiser

    Which free lottery site is reliable to play, get prizes & easier to win?

    • LG

      I don’t recommend any of the free lotto sites at the moment. The odds range from ‘harder than normal’ to ‘ridiculous’ when compared with normal paid lottery games. Plus you have to jump through extra hoops to play such as having to check your numbers and claim if you win (some will not tell you when you win, even though they know!). Then there’s all the advertising banners and emails.

  • Sudip Chakma

    I am very poor and I am needing money. Please select me to win in free lottery online.

    • LG

      If you don’t have money you can afford to lose, then playing the lottery is definitely not the answer.

      There are still free online lottery sites around, and there used to be a good book on the subject. But it hasn’t been updated for years.

      So if you do want to play those games you need to study all of their ‘sneaky’ small print – compare the terrible odds, do they even tell you if you win or do you have to check, how much email and advertising will they send you etc. I don’t recommend any of them, but if you want to give them a try do your research first.

  • Samantha Atkins

    Heck, I can’t play my own state lottery online. I don’t see why not. The state would make a lot more money due to greater ticket sales. I don’t often feel like stopping at the local liquor store or a 711 to get tickets. I would play every drawing if I could do it online. And no, it doesn’t need to cost a premium. In the 21st century it should be part of the cost of doing business. Especially as the greater sales would pay for it many times over.

    • LG

      Hey Samantha,

      Thanks for the comment.

      It’s certainly true that many lottery companies have a long way to go to catch up with how people want to play these days. The US in particular have been very paranoid about online ticket sales, and are only now starting to allow sales online in some states. Some countries have been providing tickets online for years now! Hope your state catches up soon.

  • Becky Huff

    I do not understand why the lottery tickets booklets with rules and winnings are completely different from the rules on the official Lottery site? Doesn’t make sense to me.

    • LG

      Not sure what you mean. You didn’t say which lottery, but are you sure you’re looking at the official lottery site for that lottery? Sometimes they can look very convincing but not be the official site, and just an online ticket seller.

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