Did you know that you can play the lottery online? Yes, that’s right – online lottery tickets are becoming more widely available, giving millions of people the chance to play and potentially win big via their computer or mobile device. While not yet legal in all states, 45 US states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands currently operate lotteries.
Online Lottery Tickets – Free Exclusive Bonus Offers
Looking to play the lottery for free? These are the best online lottery promotions and bonus offers available now.
Which States Can You Buy Lottery Tickets Online?
You can buy draw tickets online in the following states, whether directly, by subscription, or by using the Jackpocket courier service. In some, you can also play instant lottery games online.
| State/Territory | Online Scratch Offs | Draw Tickets | Promotion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pennsylvania Online Lottery | Yes, Visit Site | Yes, Visit Site | Sign up with promo code 20LOTTO for $20 free + 100% deposit bonus up to $500 |
| Michigan Online Lottery | Yes, Visit Site | Yes, Visit Site | Sign up with promo code BONUS50 for 50 free instant keno games + 50% deposit bonus up to $100 |
| Virginia Online Lottery | Yes, Visit Site | Yes, Visit Site | Sign up with bonus code BONUS20 for 20 free games of Vegas Cash Drop + 50% deposit bonus up to $100 |
| Arizona | None | Play at Jackpocket | Sign up for $3 off your next lottery ticket |
| Arkansas | None | Play at Jackpocket | Sign up for $3 off your next lottery ticket |
| Colorado | None | Play at Jackpocket | Sign up for $3 off your next lottery ticket |
| Idaho | None | Play at Jackpocket | Sign up for $3 off your next lottery ticket |
| Massachusetts | None | Play at Jackpocket | Sign up for $3 off your next lottery ticket |
| Minnesota | None | Play at Jackpocket | Sign up for $3 off your next lottery ticket |
| Montana | None | Play at Jackpocket | Sign up for $3 off your next lottery ticket |
| New Hampshire | Yes, Visit Site | Play at Jackpocket | Sign up for $3 off your next lottery ticket |
| New Jersey | None | Play at Jackpocket | Sign up for $3 off your next lottery ticket |
| New Mexico | None | Play at Jackpocket | Sign up for $3 off your next lottery ticket |
| New York | None | Play at Jackpocket | Sign up for $3 off your next lottery ticket |
| Ohio | None | Play at Jackpocket | Sign up for $3 off your next lottery ticket |
| Oregon | None | Play at Jackpocket | Sign up for $3 off your next lottery ticket |
| Texas | None | Play at Jackpocket | Sign up for $3 off your next lottery ticket |
| West Virginia | None | Play at Jackpocket | Sign up for $3 off your next lottery ticket |
| Washington, D.C. | Yes, Visit Site | Play at Jackpocket | Sign up for $3 off your next lottery ticket |
| Georgia | Yes, Visit Site | Yes, Visit Site | None |
| Kentucky | Yes, Visit Site | Yes, Visit Site | None |
| Rhode Island | RI Lottery Website | None | None |
| Connecticut | None | Coming Soon | None |
| Illinois Online Lottery | None | Yes, Visit Site | None |
| Maine | None | Yes, Visit Site (subscriptions only) | None |
| Maryland | None | Yes, Visit Site (subscriptions only) | None |
| New York | None | Yes, Visit Site (subscriptions only) | None |
| North Carolina | None | Yes, Visit Site | None |
| North Dakota | None | Yes, Visit Site (subscriptions only) | None |
More About Playing the Lottery Online
When you play the lottery online, a portion of the revenue goes towards supporting state programs, organizations, and charities. For instance, in Illinois, 25% of all lottery revenue is directed towards in-state schools, charities like the Special Olympics, and causes like Homelessness Prevention.
If you’re looking for a reliable online lottery platform, state-regulated apps like Jackpocket Lottery are a great option. Not only can you purchase tickets online in over a dozen US states, but you can also rest assured that your gaming experience is secure and backed by state regulations.
Billion-Dollar Lottery Jackpots as of December 2023
| Date | Value | Lottery | Winners' States |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01/13/2016 | $1.59B | Powerball | CA, FL, TN |
| 11/23/2018 | $1.54B | Mega Millions | SC |
| 01/22/2021 | $1.05B | Mega Millions | MI |
| 07/29/2022 | $1.34B | Mega Millions | IL |
| 11/07/2022 | $2.04B | Powerball | CA |
| 01/13/2023 | $1.35B | Mega Millions | ME |
| 07/19/2023 | $1.08B+ | Powerball | CA |
| 08/09/2023 | $1.58B | Mega Millions | FL |
| 10/11/2023 | $1.76B+ | Powerball | CA |
The History Of Online Lottery Tickets In The US
The origins of the lottery in the US go back to the early 1700s, even before the US became an independent nation. According to US historians, newspaper ads from the colonial era indicate the existence of hundreds of lotteries throughout the 18th century.
Puerto Rico became the first US territory in the 20th century to introduce a lottery, doing so in 1934. New Hampshire followed in 1964 as the first US state to offer a lottery.
As of 2023, 45 states, along with Washington DC, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, operate lotteries in the US. Each of these states and territories offer instant win and drawing games unique to each jurisdiction.
All of these territories, apart from Puerto Rico, also participate in MegaMillions and Powerball, the two biggest national lotteries in the US. These multi-state games can see grand prizes go over the $1 billion mark.
Wire Act Opinion And Online Lottery Tickets
In 2011, the US Department of Justice issued an opinion on the federal Wire Act that paved the way for individual states to offer online lottery sales. The 1961 Wire Act outlawed electronic transactions related to gambling, but the 2011 opinion ruled that the language in the Wire Act only applied to sports betting.
Illinois became the first US state to offer online lottery sales, with the Illinois Lottery implementing the program in March 2012.
These states offer online purchases to in-state instant win, drawing, and other games, as well as national lotteries such as MegaMillions and PowerBall. Online lottery is one of the most common forms of online gambling in the US.
Can You Buy Lottery Tickets Online For Free?
Players can buy lottery tickets online for free with the above list of online lottery promotions. Here’s a breakdown of the different types of online lottery bonus codes available:
Deposit Match Bonuses
Deposit match bonuses allow players to earn bonus money matching a percentage of a player’s deposit. This kind of bonus, which includes sports betting bonuses, is one of the most commonly offered promotions across the best online casinos and legal gambling sites.
The Pennsylvania iLottery, for example, offers $20 for free on signup with code 20LOTTO, plus a 100% deposit-match bonus up to $500. The bonus comes with a 5x playthrough requirement, meaning five times the original deposit must be wagered to earn the full bonus. Additional terms and conditions apply.
Deposit match bonuses don’t always just apply to new players making their first deposit at an online lottery site. However, you can expect the same or similar playthrough requirements.
How To Purchase Online Lottery Tickets
State Lottery iOS And Android Apps
Most legal online lottery platforms offer mobile apps for both iOS and Android devices.
For iOS users, these apps can be found in the App Store. Android users can now find these apps in the Google Play Store.
Jackpocket App
The Jackpocket mobile app legally offers online lottery purchases in several states that don’t have a dedicated online lottery platform.
Jackpocket can be downloaded for both Android and iOS devices. Android users can find the download link at the Jackpocket website.
Desktop
Online lottery tickets can also be purchased directly from a state lottery website, using virtually any desktop browser.
Purchasing Lottery Tickets And Redeeming Prizes
Purchases for in-state instant win and drawing games, as well as Powerball and MegaMillions, are just a click away on legal online lottery apps.
Winning tickets are automatically redeemed, with the cash prizes from those tickets available for withdrawal through several methods.
Use our random Lottery Numbers Generator to choose your lottery tickets and to purchase tickets online.
Depositing And Withdrawing
ACH/eCheck, PayPal, debit cards, credit cards, and PayNearMe are some of the methods offered for depositing at legal online lottery sites.
ACH/eCheck and PayPal can be used for withdrawals as well.
How To Play Mega Millions Online
All states offering online lottery through state-regulated platforms and the Jackpocket mobile app allow for ticket purchases to MegaMillions.
MegaMillions and Powerball are the two biggest multi-state lotteries operating in the US. MegaMillions offers purchases in 45 states, Washington DC, and the US Virgin Islands.
The MegaMillions drawing game happens twice every week and carries a grand prize that can sometimes reach over $1 billion. The biggest MegaMillions jackpot ever saw $1.537 billion paid out to the winner.
Winning MegaMillions tickets purchased through state online platforms are automatically redeemed after the drawing, with the winnings paid to the player’s account balance. Those funds can then be withdrawn via ACH/eCheck, PayPal, and various other methods.
The Jackpocket app automatically redeems and pays out winnings of $600 or less. For bigger prizes, Jackpot arranges for the secure delivery of the winning ticket.
How To Play Powerball Online
Much like MegaMillions, Powerball tickets can be found on the menu in all states offering legal online lottery purchases. Powerball is offered in 45 US states, Washington DC, the US Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.
Powerball operates as one of two major national lotteries in the US. Like MegaMillions, Powerball drawings are conducted twice weekly, with massive potential payouts on the line.
The biggest lottery jackpot in US history saw $2.04 billion paid out to a Powerball winner in 2022.
Powerball tickets purchased online are automatically redeemed in the case of a win.
The Jackpocket app automatically redeems wins of $600 or less. Wins of more than $600 result in Jackpot securely delivering the winning ticket to the winner.
What Are Instant Win Lottery Games?
Instant win lottery games represent some of the oldest forms of legal gambling in the US. Even the lotteries from the 18th century uncovered by US historians featured forms of instant win games.
The most familiar instant win lottery format comes in the form of scratch-off tickets. Physical instant win scratch-off tickets feature various payouts, and the frequency and amount of these payouts depend on the game.
Online versions of instant-win games work the same way. Many of the instant win games found at retail lottery outlets are also available on official state lottery platforms. Other games have fancy graphics and animations that make you feel like you’re in a real money casino, though the prize tables still work the same way as an instant lottery.
Pennsylvania Instant Win Games
The PA iLottery platform offers more than 50 different instant win games, known as eInstants. Plenty of opportunities for big instant payouts await, with games supplied by Scientific Games.
The Pennsylvania Keystone Cash instant win game, for example, features a maximum grand prize of $300,000, while Jungle Tumble Jackpots has a progressive jackpot. Ticket prices range from $0.10 up to $30.
Michigan Instant Win Games
Michigan was the second state to implement a full-featured online lottery, after Georgia.
The Michigan Lottery offers over 350 different instant win games for online purchase. Games like Bullseye Keno carry grand prizes of $500,000. The Michigan Lottery site gives bettors access to these titles and more 24 hours a day.
Here you’ll also find the fastest-growing catalog of online instant games, already numbering in the hundreds, as the Lottery tries to keep up with the popularity of legal online casinos in Michigan.
The range of stakes runs from $0.10 up to $20 for most games, and some top prizes are as high as $250,000.
Georgia Instant Win Games
Georgia was the first state to introduce online instant lottery games. That’s interesting, in that it was relatively late in establishing a lottery in the first place, and is behind the curve on most other forms of gambling.
It calls its instant games Diggi Games, and these are supplied by GTech. This company was acquired by IGT two years after the Georgia Online Lottery launched. Since IGT also supplies games for the Rhode Island and Kentucky lotteries, you’ll find some overlap between the games in those states.
Georgia has a decent-sized lineup of games, consisting of several dozen titles. Ticket prices range from $0.50 to $20 and top prizes from $25,000 up to a maximum of $350,000 for a game called Royal Jumbo Bucks.
Kentucky Instant Win Games
Kentucky uses IGT as its software provider, which means there’s a significant overlap between its titles – which it calls Instant Play – and those found in Georgia and Rhode Island. For instance, Ruby 7s is a game you can play in all three states.
Available stakes range from $0.50 per ticket up to $20. The maximum prize available as of this writing is $300,000, with several games offering that maximum. At the other extreme is one game, Pixies of the Forest, which has just a $500 top prize, but fairly good odds of hitting it.
New Hampshire Instant Win Games
Like Michigan, Virginia, and Washington DC, New Hampshire chose the IWG/NeoPollard tag team to power its online games, which it calls e-Instants.
New Hampshire residents can play at some of the lowest price points in the country. Tickets start as low as one cent. The maximum is $20, which is the standard elsewhere, but relatively few games go that high; many cap out at $2 or $5.
Top prizes are likewise lower in New Hampshire than in other states. There is one game, Diamond Payout, which offers the chance to win up to $250,000, but the majority of games have top prizes in the five figures.
Rhode Island Instant Win Games
Rhode Island’s online lottery came as a surprise in the summer of 2020. No new law was needed, because the provisions granted to the lottery to secure a sports betting supplier in 2019 were general enough to allow it to sign a deal for online lottery services as well.
The Rhode Island Lottery describes its instant win games as e-Instants, like New Hampshire. However, the games themselves overlap heavily with those in Georgia and Michigan, because they all use IGT as a supplier.
The game lobby shows the top prizes, which range from $10,000 up to $200,000. Ticket prices range from $1 up to $20. There is also a single version of Keno available, with prices from $1 to $10 and a $100,000 top prize.
Virginia Instant Win Games
Virginia calls its collection of iLottery products MyGameRoom, though it doesn’t have a special designation for the instant games. These are provided by IWG/NeoPollard, so you’ll get to play favorites like Street Fighter II Instant Win. There is also some overlap with Pennsylvania’s collection including Jungle Tumble Jackpots.
Prices for the games start from just $0.05 and range up to $20 for some games, though many cap out at less. Top prizes range from $20,000 to a maximum of $300,000 for the scratch-type games and $500,000 for Instant Keno Multiplier.
Washington D.C. Instant Win Games
The latest jurisdiction to launch an online lottery isn’t a state at all, but rather the District of Columbia. It made the decision quickly, rushing out emergency rules in December 2020 and launching its online games just a month later, in January 2021.
DC went with IWG for its games, with recent releases including Doublin’ Doubloons and Prospector’s Jackpots.
Ticket prices for the instant games range from $0.05 to $20 and top prizes start at $10,000 and range up to $100,000, with Jungle Tumble being the first game to offer that maximum payout.
Is It Safe To Buy Lottery Tickets Online?
State-regulated online lottery platforms offer the chance to purchase online lottery tickets legitimately and legally. Secure purchases for in-state instant win and drawing games, as well as multi-state games like Mega Millions and Powerball, are available at official state lottery online platforms.
Purchasing lottery tickets on these platforms assures the same level of safety as purchasing official state lottery tickets from an approved retail outlet. Players who purchase lottery tickets on state-regulated online lottery platforms can count on prompt and secure payouts on winning tickets.
Is It Safe To Buy Lottery Tickets On Jackpocket?
Yes. Jackpocket functions as a third-party online courier for lottery tickets. The Jackpocket app offers purchases for in-state drawing games, as well as national lotteries like Powerball and MegaMillions.
The Jackpocket app operates in eight states. Each of those states is approved and licensed for operation by state lawmakers.
As an officially licensed partner of state and national lotteries, the Jackpocket offers secure purchases and payouts for in-state and national lottery games.
Legal Online Lottery Ticket Sites Versus Illegal Courier
Aside from the fourteen states plus Washington D.C. in which Jackpocket legally operates, the only legal way to purchase lottery tickets online is through official state lottery platforms.
Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Dakota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington D.C. are currently the only states in which an official state-regulated online lottery platform operates. Any other outlet offering online lottery ticket sales is doing so illegally.
Online lottery purchases for in-state games must be done within state borders at the time of purchase. Any platform offering tickets to out-of-state lottery games (aside from approved national lotteries) is illegal.
Playing on any kind of illegal online gambling site presents a risky proposition. Player funds are not secured by official gaming regulatory bodies, and depositing at an illegal gambling site doesn’t guarantee that the money can later be withdrawn.
Online Lottery FAQ
Yes. You can buy lottery tickets online. In several states, an online lottery is offered, either by the state lottery directly or by Jackpocket, an online lottery app available in a handful of US states.
Yes. Several states offer official, legal online lottery platforms, including Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Dakota, Kentucky, North Carolina, and New Hampshire.
States with official, state-regulated online lottery outlets offer purchase of tickets for in-state drawing and instant win games, as well as multi-state lotteries like MegaMillions and Powerball.
Jackpocket, a legal mobile lottery courier, also offers online lottery purchases in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, West Virginia, and Washington D.C.
Individual states operate and regulate the lottery in their respective jurisdictions. A total of 45 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands all operate individual lotteries.
Multi-state lotteries like Mega Millions and Powerball are regulated as joint efforts among participating states.
18 or older. The minimum age for purchasing lottery tickets, both retail and online, is 18. Legal online lottery platforms require proof of identity, age, and location to purchase tickets.
Lottery ticket courier services operate as legal, licensed partners to state and national lotteries. Platforms like the Jackpocket app essentially purchase lottery tickets on the player’s behalf.
Jackpocket functions much like the official online lottery platforms offered in some states. Players can deposit funds, purchase tickets, and withdraw winning directly from the Jackpocket app.
Winnings of up to $600 are automatically applied to a player’s balance on Jackpocket. Winnings of more than $600 will result in Jackpocket arranging for secure delivery of the physical winning ticket to the player.
Jackpocket operates legally in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, West Virginia, and Washington D.C. Online lottery purchases made through Jackpocket in these states are as secure as purchasing at an official retail or online state lottery outlet.
The biggest prizes available in online lottery instant win games can reach into the six-figure territory or higher. An online instant win game offered by the Michigan Lottery, Bullseye Keno, carries a $500,000 grand prize. The PA iLottery offers the Pennsylvania Keystone Cash instant win game, with a grand prize of $300,000.
Yes. Non-US residents can purchase lottery tickets and win prizes in US-based lotteries. Players must be 18 or over and have purchased a winning ticket inside the US to be eligible to win.
Purchasing a US-based lottery ticket without being located inside US borders is illegal.
Federal law dictates that US citizens cannot legally participate in lotteries outside the US through the mail, internet, or phone.
The only way to legally purchase an international lottery ticket is by visiting a foreign country and making an in-person purchase. Winnings on international lottery ticket purchases are subject to taxation in both the issuing country and the US.
Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. offer the ability to buy Mega Millions tickets online. In addition, New York offers the opportunity to purchase subscriptions for Mega Millions online.
About the Author
