Why Have We Not Seen More Online Lotteries?

Working in a confined area with four other guys at twelve hours a crack can get old. After a few hours of juvenile talk and horseplay we eventually move onto various other topics. Every few months or so when one of the national lotteries starts to get high in total the topic inevitably becomes what we would do if one of us won the lottery. Of course we all talk big about how we would take care of each other and buy houses or islands in tropical areas; all nonsense of course. The odds of one of us winning the lottery are one in several hundred million, but when you work like we do, you have the obligation to dream of greener pastures.

The last time my co-workers and myself had this conversation I started thinking to myself, "Why haven't I seen any casinos or commissions push for an online lottery?" Taking part in a lottery is a form of gambling, and while state governments are the ones who regulate it, what it really out there to stop a casino from putting out a worldwide lottery inside of its software?

A worldwide lottery could be very beneficial to all parties involved. More regions involved in a lottery means bigger winnings for the lucky ones who hit, and bigger profits for those who operate these lotteries. Operators could also benefit from perhaps bringing in new demographics into their casinos that would otherwise stay away because they have not had the desire to get into an online casino but might jump at the possibility of being able to get their "one in a million" shot at the worldwide lotto. Setting up and running a virtual lottery wouldn't be that costly either and could be run in a similar way to a progressive slot machine. Audits and verification are already in place for those games, and I don't think it is unreasonable to think that they could be that hard to run with a reputable operator. This would make things seem more on the up and up and give people a sense of security with their wagers in exactly the same manner we see with good online casinos.

Legalities are perhaps a bigger obstacles I could possibly see as holding up a big online lottery. In the United States, lotteries are regulated very tightly and actually were not officially in operation until the mid 1960's. With the amount of revenue that state governments generate though lotteries, I could see them putting up a big fight to keep unregulated internet lotteries from getting off the ground here. However there is current legislation that is supposed to keep American online gamblers curtailed and it has failed miserably, with millions of people logging on every year to place bets, so I don't think unless there was a massive crackdown that you would see too big of a restriction on players (but I would still consider legalities to be the roadblock to an online lottery).

I am aware that there are some forms of online lotteries on the web right now, but honestly looking at them you have to admit they are pretty lackluster. They are either a free lottery (probably a scam) or a version of a state lottery that allows you to get your tickets online. Granted, I have not played the state lotteries online, but I don't trust that those are even real ways to buy into a state lottery, and would not play those unless I did my homework. What I am wondering and hoping for is that someone figures out a way to get a big lottery online and that I can enjoy putting my numbers in once a week.

My mansion in the Bahamas is counting on it.