Playing the lottery online comes with its own challenges
With the digital age in full swing, and the COVID pandemic keeping most people at home more often, the idea of playing the lottery only online has inspired more and more players to buy tickets on their computers, tablets, and smartphones, rather than venture out to a retailer. Online gambling has taken off in many jurisdictions and players love the convenience of simple ticket purchases from home.
Online gambling
The concept of online gambling has been around almost as long as the internet has. During those times, online gambling was illegal and players took a chance not to get caught to satisfy their gaming itches. However, the operators and regulators noticed that even with enforcement, illegal online gaming was not going to go away. So in typical government decisions style, if you can’t beat them, join them and hopefully they will lose money and go away.
Now although some illegal online gambling still exists, most jurisdictions have or intend to implement online lottery ticket purchases. Some of the reasons they have done this include:
• Reducing the amount of illegal online gambling
• Redirecting illegal online gambling to legal online gambling to ensure players’ money is used for legitimate charitable support rather than for pure profit for the illegal online operators
• Providing a safe, secure, honest, and regulated site to ensure players are able to purchase lottery tickets that are real, true, and with actual winnable prizes
For players, online lottery provides both advantages and disadvantages over buying tickets at a retailer. For example, you can either pick your own numbers or let the system pick them for you. Playing the lottery online is easier and faster, as you can play anytime of the day or night on any day of the week from a cafe, on your lunch at work, or from the comfort of your home, and even your bathroom.
Playing the lottery online
Playing the lottery online sometimes provides the opportunity of playing more types of lottery games than at a retailer. There are no long lineups and there is no chance for you to lose your ticket as the system will notify you if you have won a prize and, up to a certain amount, deposit it into your lottery account.
Payment methods are very secure with online ticket purchases. You can put money into your lottery account either directly from your bank account, or by using a credit card, and the transaction is done with a high security system and encryption method. And you can even buy subscriptions that enable you to select your favourite lottery games and automatically play subsequent draws without having to re-buy tickets each time.
If you win a large prize or the top jackpot, lottery investigations and interviews take less time and less effort as information such as the date and time of the lottery purchase, the winning ticket numbers and ticket id number, and other digital information attached to the ticket, are already in the system and accessible to investigators.
Now, disadvantages of playing online include the disclosure of personal and financial information to the operator. To play the lottery online, you have to register and create an account. You will need to provide your name and address, your date of birth, gender, and your email address. You will also need to provide details of your credit or debit card for the operator to process your payment, although once that is done, buying your tickers becomes a very quick process.
With online lottery purchasing being so easy to do, the potential of becoming addicted can be higher. Our pandemic times have lead to a large increase in online lottery playing and many gambling addiction agencies have seen a rise in the numbers of people seeking help.
As we can see, playing the lottery online can be very easy, convenient, and fun both in buying the tickets and being notified that you have won a prize. Just be aware that buying your tickets online could lead to you buying more tickets than you would at a retailer. Make a lottery budget and let the system work for you.
Sources
https://nativenewsonline.net/advertise/branded-voices/several-benefits-of-playing-the-lottery-online-as-compared-to-traditional-betting
https://www.gambling.com/ca/lottery/knowledge/online-vs-offline-lottery-tickets-42900
https://www.onlinebettingsites.com/betting-lotteries-versus-buying-tickets/
https://or.thelotter.com/why-play-lottery-online/
https://theurbantwist.com/2019/02/11/pros-and-cons-of-playing-online-lottery/