Playing the lotto may not carry particularly great individual odds for players, but the ever-increasing jackpots draw in massive amounts of players nonetheless. Some of these players are regulars: they play all the time, regardless of the size of the jackpot. Others are seasonal players, in the sense that they only buy lotto tickets when the jackpot swells to an impressive size. Some of these seasonal and regular players are so into flirting with Lady Luck that not even national borders will prevent them from chasing after her.
While for someone with easy access to a nearby neighboring country it is a cinch to cross the border and to buy a ticket, given that most lotteries (especially with jackpots large enough to warrant the effort) are national monopolies, and given how for that reason tickets aren’t sold anywhere else, for those who can’t just cross over for the sake of a ticket, playing is quite impossible…or should we say: used to be impossible.
The internet crosses all borders and its specialty is the solving of information-transfer related problems, exactly the sort of conundrum those looking to play another country’s lottery are facing. How exactly does the online purchasing of “foreign” lottery tickets work though?
There are online companies out there which have taken it upon themselves to help such players out in return for a nominal fee. Let’s suppose we’re talking about a US-based lottery-ticket buying site. If a player from Germany decides to purchase a ticket, he’ll transfer its cost to the company behind the site, which will then purchase the ticket and save an electronic copy of it for the player.
In case of a win, the company notifies the winner, who will then personally have to fly over to collect his winnings. The choice of where he picks up his winnings in the US is an important one, because different states levy different taxes on lottery profits.
In theory, the whole process is clear and transparent, leaving no room for errors or abuse, however it’s quite obvious for everyone that there is in fact plenty of room for abuse on the part of the operator, who may simply give in to the temptation of a massive sum in case of a win and simply “forget” to let the player know he won, pocketing the money instead.
With that in mind, it is extremely important that the player pick the online lottery ticket operator properly. Operators who have fairly paid out winners in the past are obviously the most trustworthy, which means that one is best off relying on the viral information disseminated by lottery players on various forums and discussion boards when making the decision.