Illinois Lottery pushes for online expansion

Mar 25, 2013, 9:51 am (4 comments)

Illinois Lottery

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The Illinois Senate could soon decide to increase the number of ways you can play the lottery online.

A committee has passed a bill that would allow players to wager on any of the "draw-based" games — that is, in which the winning numbers are randomly selected, as in Pick 3 and Pick 4.

Right now, only Lotto, Mega Millions, and Powerball are draw-based games available online. The legislation would expand that opportunity to all seven, plus any draw-based games the lottery would add in the future.

The lottery's deputy chief of staff, Jen Acker, can't estimate how much above the current $5.5 million the expansion would bring in but said the online sales are less than one-half of 1 percent of the lottery's total take.

"We see this as a way to broaden the base (and) get new people playing." Acker told senators.

S.B. 1955 has passed the Senate Executive Committee.

IRN

Comments

Original Bey's avatarOriginal Bey

The future is now!

helpmewin's avatarhelpmewin

Party

rdgrnr's avatarrdgrnr

"...the online sales are less than one-half of 1 percent of the lottery's total take."

What I'd like to know is if there's been any negative effect on the sales of store-bought tickets, if they can tell with only one-half of 1 percent.

jamella724

This is a good news! A lot of players will enjoy playing online. I hope more players will win from this online games too!

End of comments
Subscribe to this news story