It all came into focus when an Iraqi man won the Oregon state lottery using a legal online lottery website and traveled to the state to collect his $6.4 million dollars. Right before Christmas last year, a bill was passed into law by the governor of New Jersey that seemed inconspicuous at first glance. The bill was to provide a courier service to lottery players in the state and by doing so, it has also allowed players to access online lottery websites that offer Powerball tickets through lottery agents.
The law grants the legal right to sell New Jersey Lottery tickets to players located anywhere in the world via the internet. These lottery agents accept the payments over the internet, buy the tickets for their clients and hold onto them until the lottery drawing. They are paid to redeem the tickets and hold on to the winnings to await transfer to the client should there be any.
The law takes effect on November 1 and there are already international companies that are preparing to offer the lottery courier services as soon as the law goes into effect. The director and founder of a lottery based business that’s headquartered in Malta, a small island in the Mediterranean, was quoted at The Associated Press in a telephone interview that he is currently hoping got more states to pass similar laws. He displayed his desires to reach his business across the entire continent of North America in order to allow his courier services to operate throughout the US.
New Jersey is the first state to legalize a law that provides such a service. The couriers themselves are tasked with protecting the personal information of the customers that they serve. That includes credit card information, billing address, and to carry a message with them for their customers that providers of this service that are not registered and regulated by the state pose a fraud risk and not to trust them with their potential winnings.
The process works via the internet where the lottery agent sets up a website where clients can register and chose the lotteries they wish to buy tickets for. They have options to choose how many draws they would like to purchase, if they want to purchase tickets a regular schedule which is automated for them, or if they want to join in with a group of likeminded people using the same website to share in their winning chances. In the event of a life changing win, the couriers place the winning ticket in a bank secure private box that only the rightful ticket holders can access.
New Jersey is the obvious first state to allow such a courier service based on their already pro online gambling stance. What do you think will happen as this type of courier service starts to sweep the nation? Will we see the largest jackpots ever in history because of a more global customer base? Or, will fraud take over and ruin the lottery for everyone?