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Future Online Lottery Legalization
There are several Northeastern states that are seeking to legalize online lotteries. First, New Hampshire joined the list of states that now have lotteries, legalizing the online lottery last summer. In addition to the purchase of lottery tickets, New Hampshire offers e-Instant games that can be played from a smartphone, tablet or desktop. In addition, there is a trio of Northeastern states that are in various phases of attempting to legalize an online lottery. These states are Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Jersey.Get more news about 菲律宾彩票包网服务 ,you can vist loto98.com
As mentioned above, all of the states that have online lotteries allow for the purchase of jackpot drawings. In addition, states also sell daily lottery tickets. Keno has also proved to be a popular online offering since customers no longer are required to stand in a store waiting for the numbers to be drawn. State lotteries have also offered popular virtual scratch-off games. For example, Georgia offers a wide variety of Diggi Games broken down into a variety of price points and themes. Michigan also offers a diverse variety of games, with tickets that can be purchased for as cheap as a nickel. The low price entry points help spur the Michigan lottery’s enduring popularity.
Lotteries must be careful to not get too creative in the type of games that they offer lest they run afoul of casinos operating in the state. For example, in Pennsylvania, the state lottery has attempted to offer iLottery interactive games. These games have a casino-like feel, and unlike other online lottery games, offer large jackpots. These jackpots can reach a quarter of a million dollars. These games are not the typical lottery or scratch-off games that other online lotteries have offered. Some of these games mimic casino games insofar as they are blackjack and roulette-type offerings.
Pennsylvania online casinos have viewed this as an encroachment on their turf. Pennsylvania online casinos pay high licensing fees to the state and are required to pay a steep tax rate. This gives the casinos an expectation that they will not have competition from the state to which they pay these licensing fees and taxes. In addition, online lotteries gain a competitive advantage over casinos since lotteries are open to players aged 18 years or older, as opposed to casinos, whose eligibility age is three years older.
Pennsylvania is the only state where the iLottery competes with online casinos and so far the two have had trouble co-existing. New Jersey is also another crowded gambling market that is considering online lotteries. There is speculation that online casinos may oppose the move given the experience in neighboring Pennsylvania. New Jersey has experimented with courier sales of lottery tickets, but that does not require new ticket purchases. Pennsylvania is likely to prove a cautionary tale for other states seeking to have both an online lottery and online casinos unless the online lottery promises to be limited in scope. While there is room for casinos and states to grow revenues, at some point the two start competing for the same slice of the pie. The one advantage that casinos have over lotteries is that many lotteries prohibit credit card sales while casino accounts can be funded with a credit card.
In some instances, the presence of a successful online lottery may mean that online casinos may not get a chance to operate in a state. For example, Michigan has little incentive to offer online casinos since its online lottery has been so successful. Allowing online casinos to operate in the state may mean that Michigan has to share revenues with casino operators that are its exclusive territory right now. Michigan can continue to expand its own lottery offerings to a program that resembles Pennsylvania’s iLottery without legalizing online casinos. |
