So, while the lottery purchase is a digital transaction, there’s ultimately paper involved. (The Jackpocket spokesperson also said that the company works with the lottery boards in the states where it operates and gets any required licensing.) A Jackpocket spokesperson explained that the buying is done with a courier-style system, not unlike with a food-delivery app, and that the company has relationships with a number of brick-and-mortar retailers. For example, Jackpocket levies a 9% fee on any deposit plus a $.29 transaction fee - so if you want to order $100 worth of lottery tickets, you’ll actually have to deposit $109.29 into your account.Īnd about those tickets: Both Jackpocket and say they purchase physical tickets on behalf of users and then safely hold on to them. They make their money by charging users service fees when they fund their accounts. The private companies follow similar models.

One new entrant,, launched earlier this year and is now operating in New York, Texas and Ohio.Īdd it up, and more than two dozen states allow for some form of online lottery purchases, according to the site.

Other private companies are in the business as well. Some states have their own online platforms. The company, which recently raised $120 million from investors, says users of its platform have accounted for as much as 15% of Powerball sales in the states where it operates.īut Jackpocket isn’t alone in the field. The private company launched in 2013 and is now live in more than 15 states, plus Washington, D.C. “People are more comfortable with being able to do everything on their phone,” said Bill Speros, a senior betting analyst with, a gambling site.Ĭertainly, the growth of Jackpocket, the major company in the app/online lottery world, speaks to this change. And some lottery-industry watchers say they are poised to become a dominant force in much the same way that food-delivery apps have come to define restaurant takeout orders.

While lottery apps and online platforms are still relatively new and account for only a fraction of the $105.26 billion that Americans spend annually on lottery tickets, they are nevertheless becoming more popular.

“It’s become my new best friend,” he said of the app. The New York City resident says the convenience factor can’t be beat, especially when there’s a big jackpot at stake and he’s eager to play. Sansone is a regular user of Jackpocket, an app that allows him to order tickets for games like Powerball and Mega Millions.

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