Did you know that you can play the US Powerball online from anywhere in the world? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. I hear the same response from people all over the world “You mean I can play Powerball from outside the US?” The short answer is yes, the long answer is yes and keep reading!
In spite of the huge popularity of this lottery draw game, it is still an unknown to many that you can buy Powerball tickets online, whether you are in the US or not. To be clear, this doesn’t even mean that you have to be a citizen of the US either. No citizenship & not based in the US? You can still play powerball online and buy lottery tickets online for a number of different lottery draw games.
Let’s look into the lottery strategy and how you can take advantage of the new lottery landscape to play the biggest lotteries in the world from the comfort of your home.
Online Lottery; Tickets, Jackpots & Insurance
Before we begin with how you can play Powerball online, here is a little game summary of the US Powerball and the features that make it the most popular supplier of online lottery tickets in the world.
The structure of the draw is one which regular lottery players will be very familiar with; players must pick 5 regular numbers from a pool with a total of 69 numbers and in addition to these regular number picks, you also choose one bonus ball (known as the Powerball) from a pool of 26. These two pools of numbers are mutually exclusive and remain completely separate throughout the drawing procedure. In order to jackpot the US Powerball, you need to match all 5 regular numbers and the Powerball. Do this and you are instant Powerball millionaire – it’s as simple as that!
The US Powerball is a standard lottery draw game based and operated from the golden State of California. The US Powerball has been making millionaires and multi-millionaires since its first drawing way back in 1992. With over 25 years of experience in the lottery industry, the Powerball, along with many other State lotteries, has broken through the final glass ceiling and transformed itself from an interstate lottery into a truly international lottery of global reach.
Buy Lottery Tickets Online:
Nowadays there is a plethora of websites to choose from and new companies offer online lottery ticket service every day. Due to the nature of this industry and the fact that newcomers are popping up all over, it is advisable to be diligent and check out the lottery ticket provider carefully before you decide to buy Powerball tickets online with them. This is easily done with a quick google search and an investment of 5 minutes on your part. Trust us, the five minutes is worth it to be sure that when/if you play Powerball online and win, you actually receive your jackpot winnings.
There’s Only 2 Ways to Get to the Jackpot!
The two different methods, both offer you, the player, the same user experience and the only difference is in the back end of how the online lottery ticket provider works. The two methods that online lottery sites use differ in one key way; They either have agents and employees all over the world that physically purchase tickets on behalf of clients or, the more recent phenomenon is when companies essentially take out an insurance policy on every ticket which is tied to the size of the jackpot. This is the difference between you playing the lottery online and betting on the lottery online*. In the latter option you are, de facto, not playing the US Powerball online but rather you are placing a bet with an insurance company on the outcome of the corresponding Powerball draw.
This method specifically has faced criticism recently from a number of lottery organizers such as Camelot, the UK National Lottery organizers who are not happy with companies “selling tickets” (selling bets on outcomes of their established lottery draws) for prices sometimes even cheaper than Camelot themselves sells their tickets. This legal and corporate dispute looks set to continue for the foreseeable future, in the mean time you can continue to buy Powerball tickets online, only now you are aware of the key differences between the two business models.
*a tip to know whether the website you are looking at actually buys lottery tickets online or follows the insurance model is to check the wording that they use. If you see the words “Play” then you can be confident it is a company that has agents and buys your tickets physically, if you see the words “Bet” you can be sure it is following the insurance model and you are placing a bet on the outcome of a lottery.
How to Play US Powerball Lottery Online: What to Look Out for
Now you are aware of the online lottery, how it works, what are the distinctions between online lottery ticket providers and you’ve chosen a website to buy lottery tickets online. The only remaining question is How do you actually play Powerball online?
Assuming that you have chosen an online lottery company that physically purchases tickets online. How you play Powerball online is the following; Firstly, pick whether you want to buy group Powerball tickets online or single tickets. Almost all online lottery ticket providers offer the player to buy group tickets in addition to single ticket purchases. An online group game ticket in the Powerball is the same concept as a work syndication for the lottery, only nowadays thanks to the wonders of the internet, you don’t have to rely on the people in your vicinity – you can join a syndicate that is made up of hundreds, if not thousands of people scattered all across the globe.
The advantages to group game tickets is that is a good way to maximize your exposure (you have a little bit of a lot of tickets) without spending fortunes of multiple tickets. Due to the US Powerball having a minimum jackpot of $40m, group game tickets are always an attractive option as even with only a 2.5% share of the syndicate, you will still win $1m! As the jackpots grow, the Syndicate option becomes more and more appealing. The mantra of the group game player is “it’s better to have a little bit of something than a big bit of nothing.”
The other option is to buy single tickets and play alone. Pick your own numbers, play your own tickets and if you win, you win it all! In this scenario, it is advisable to buy lottery tickets online at least 24 hours before the draw will take place. The reason behind this is because in the single ticket scenario, you want to leave enough time for the agents to go to their local store, purchase your ticket, scan your ticket and upload your ticket into your account. If you purchase your Powerball tickets online at the last minute, some online lottery ticket providers will process your payment and if they can’t buy a ticket in time for the draw you wanted, your ticket will be purchased for the following draw. Bear in mind that the nature of a global online lottery with agents scattered around the world is that everyone is working on different time zones. To be sure that your ticket is purchased for the lottery draw you want, ensure that you don’t buy your lottery tickets online at the last minute. This is something that all online lottery players should be aware of as jackpots and odds can change from draw to draw. You need to know that if you are buying Powerball tickets online, which draw your tickets will be entered into.
Can I Play Powerball from Outside the US?
Not only can you play, you can win!
Still, people think that just because you can play Powerball online and you can buy Powerball tickets online, that for some reason this is not possible if you are based outside of the US – this is false. You can play Powerball from outside the US just as easily as you can play Powerball from inside the US.
It is not just the US Powerball either where this is possible; Mega Millions, SuperLotto Plus, Euromillions etc can all be played from outside the US (Euromillions obviously is based outside the US, but it can also be played from outside the Country it is based).
If you still have doubts as to whether you can buy lottery tickets online, check out the Iraqi national that won $6.4 million in the Oregon State lottery despite not being a) a citizen, b) a resident and c) having never set foot in Oregon (or even the US for that matter!). Click the link on the text to read more about this watershed moment in buying lottery tickets online and the unsuccessful steps taken by the local government to try and block this payment. Despite all the efforts, the lottery winner had acted completely legally and was entitled to his millions.
For many potential players, the viral story of the Iraqi lottery winner opened their eyes and showed a proof of concept that not only can you play the Powerball online, but more importantly, if you play and win, you will get paid. Without the concrete example of the Iraqi lotto winner, it would be hard to prove to anyone without a doubt that you will be eligible for the payment if you win. The US Powerball is even more clear cut as it specifically has no limitations or restrictions to who can buy Powerball tickets online. You can be sure that if you get Powerball tickets online and it is to play and not bet on the lottery that there will be a local agent buying your ticket for you.
Once your ticket is purchased, scanned and uploaded into your account that ticket is yours. Legally and in every other sense possible. The same questions always pop up at this stage of the explanation to new time online lottery players and these doubts can be best explained in further detail in the article on the Iraqi Lottery winner but the gist of it is as follows:
- The person who physically buy your online lottery ticket is an employee of the online lottery company and an agent that does not have any legal rights to claim the ticket that he/she bought on your behalf
- Once your lottery ticket is purchased, scanned and uploaded to your account, you own the ticket and the rights of the ticket – legally speaking what the agent has after scanning in your ticket is just a piece a paper. (This is why you should never trust a website that claims it is legitimate and does not following the insurance model but does not scan the tickets and send them to you – red flag).
- The people that work at the local store where your online lottery ticket was purchased know these agents, they buy thousands of tickets every day and it would be impossible for these agents to claim that the winning ticket is theirs.
- The owner of the store that sold the ticket is incentivized to get the winnings to the right person as this is the only way they can receive their bonus for selling the winning tickets (They will not get paid until any disputes have been settled) – In the case of the Iraqi man winning the Oregon State lottery, the shop that sold the ticket received a $64,000 ‘selling bonus’.
Buy Official Tickets for the US Powerball Lottery Online
Despite the uneasiness of many to begin with, I know of no disputes or complaints from people who have bought Powerball tickets online via the insurance model, won and not been paid. As you can imagine, this scenario would effectively close down their website as they rely solely on the trust factor. The insurance model means that you will not be buying “official” tickets, but what do you care if you get paid your millions at the end of the day!
Online Lottery Tickets – The Future of the Lottery, Online
As technology improves the rest of the world plays catch up. The technological revolution in the online lottery industry is very similar to that of online casino and online sports betting. The internet 2.0 the internet of things, has created the platform where players from all over the world can feel safe and secure in making payments, and more importantly, receiving the winnings from the lottery they decided to play.
The world of the online lottery and buying online lottery tickets is only going to become more streamlined in the future. The interesting event around the corner will be just how State lottery organizers deal with the insurance method and the repercussions of this upcoming legal judgment. In the mean time, you can feel rest and assured that you can play the US Powerball online, you can win the US Powerball online and you will get paid your US Powerball jackpot winnings if you do win.