Everything to Know About Playing the Online Lottery in America

By Jessica Whitehouse,
Editor at online-gambling.com

Jessica Whitehouse Editor at online-gambling.com

Jessica Whitehouse is a content expert and editor from Santa Monica, California. At online-gambling.com, she focuses on roulette, blackjack reviews, lottery, and casino payments. Whitehouse is also our leading go-to expert in online gambling in South Africa. In addition, she provides the photo materials for most articles on the site.

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Last updated: November 20, 2019

Anyone living in the United States can quickly and easily purchase online lottery tickets. While the most popular and legitimate websites will only sell lottery tickets sold in US States, it is possible to play any lottery, anywhere in the world, no matter where they’re located. And you don’t need—and shouldn’t use—a VPN to do it. Here’s how to buy US and international online lotteries – and how to use these websites to get even more out of lottery play.

Playing US Lotteries Online

It’s even possible to buy tickets on the go from a mobile device © Wikimedia Commons

It’s easy to find a safe, secure, and legitimate online lottery service from the United States. If you’re a resident, you can choose from the MegaMillions and Powerball to the California SuperLotto and the New York Lotto.

To find the best sites, it’s important to weigh the options. Expert review sites and lottery forums are a good place to start. Once a few stand out, compare and contrast to identify the one with the lowest fees, best offers, and highest ratings. The more popular, the more legitimate. And real-life winners and testimonials are also great indicators of legitimacy.

However, all third-party online lottery websites charge an additional fee for the service.

It’s understandable to wonder why anyone would buy tickets online when they could simply go to the corner store or gas station. The first reason is that they can pay with a credit or debit card rather than cash. The second is that even slightly more convenient is still more convenient. The third: the rewards.

Online Lottery Rewards and Bonuses

Anyone with experience playing at online casinos will be familiar with the common online lottery promotions. The first thing of interest will be the new member offer (also known as the Welcome Bonus or Package). When money is deposited into the account, the operator will often match the funds by a certain percentage. If, for example, the promotion is 200% of the first deposit, the depositor would have triple what they deposited in their account. If the amount were $20, the operator would add 200% of $20, giving the depositor $60 to play with.

Additional online lottery promotions include discounts on buying multiple tickets. This usually means buying multiple weeks’ worth of tickets in advance (versus buying multiple tickets for the same drawing). The discount can be as much as 10%. However, buying a certain number of tickets for the same drawing can mean an additional ticket for free. Further, rewards points are often given to players for every ticket they purchase and can be later cashed in for prizes like free tickets.

The specific promos are dependent on the website, but those are the fairly common examples.

Can Americans Play International Lotteries Online?

There’s no need to use a VPN to make it look like the IP address is located in another country. That’s a common strategy for folks determined to play at restricted online casinos and sportsbooks, but such is not the case for international lotteries.

Instead, to play the lotteries of other countries online from the United States, use a legitimate service that buys the ticket from that country for the purchaser. This will require an additional fee, but there’s no other way to receive a ticket internationally.

Of course, this comes with risks. The biggest one is that there’s really no way to know if the service purchased your ticket or not. For assurances there, do plenty of research on user reviews and legitimate expert sites. Some services will prove the purchase via photograph rather than simply display the numbers. The second risk is receiving your winnings. Just like for an online casino, the best way to make sure you’ll receive your winnings is extensive research.

Americans can play EuroMillions online. They can buy a ticket for the Italian SuperEna, the Mexican Melate, MiniLoto Japan, the South African daily lottery, the lotteries of Austria or Hungary, and beyond. It is possible to buy an online lottery ticket from practically any country that hosts a lotto draw.