Online lottery is a popular form of gambling that allows players to place bets on the results of official lottery games. While these sites don’t offer tickets like traditional lotteries, they are still fully licensed and regulated. Most importantly, they pay out jackpot winnings from insurance policies rather than state coffers. As such, they are a safe and secure alternative to traditional lotteries. Unlike traditional lotteries, which are government-run, most online lotteries are private businesses. They serve as middlemen for the official games, such as MegaMillions, EuroJackpot, or PowerBall. They also offer other features, such as a variety of payment methods and a mobile app. While these services may not make online lottery as convenient as the real thing, they’re still a great way to play the game from home. To play the lottery, you must be of legal age and be located within a state’s borders. In the US, only a handful of states offer online lottery games, but many other countries do. In addition to age restrictions, most legal lottery websites have geolocation technology that ensures customers are within the borders of their state. This is especially important since federal law prohibits online ticket sales across state lines. The first US lottery to go online was Illinois in 2012. Since then, other states have followed suit, including New York, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Some even host multi-state lotteries, such as the aforementioned Powerball and Mega Millions. While some opponents of online lottery argue that it cannibalizes traditional sales, the data shows otherwise. The Pennsylvania iLottery was launched in 2018 and has seen consistent growth every year since. In fact, it’s one of the fastest-growing online lotteries in the world. Another benefit of online lottery is that it offers more opportunities to win big prizes. For example, you can win a massive jackpot by matching just three numbers on a Pick 3 or four-digit Pick 4 game. You can also choose to play a straight or box selection, both of which have different odds of winning. Aside from multi-state and national lottery games, online lotteries also offer instant-win scratch-off games. Some of these games have jackpots in the millions of dollars, while others are smaller but still worth playing. In either case, the odds of winning are much higher than with traditional lotteries. In addition to a wide variety of instant-win games, many online lotteries offer bonus and loyalty programs. For instance, some offer deposit match bonuses, which reward players with bonus money based on the amount they put into their accounts. This is a common promotional strategy to attract new players and keep existing ones happy. Some even have a rewards program that lets players earn free entries to their favorite games. This is a great incentive for people to sign up for an online lottery site.