Introduction
We all know the lottery and how to take part. Every week we tick our own numbers on a lottery slip and then wait in suspense when the draw takes place, especially if the jackpot is worth millions. Very few if any of the readers of this article will have succeeded in winning the jackpot, but perhaps some of us know someone who has become an instant millionaire. Of course, hitting the jackpot win is extremely unlikely, yet every week vast amounts of money are spent around the world to buy lottery tickets. The popularity of the game may be due to its simplicity, the affordable price and, naturally, the hope to score that big win, no matter how minuscule the chances might be.
While the lottery is a very familiar game and each of us has probably tried it at times, did you know exactly what it’s all about when you participate in the lottery offerings at Megalotto.com? Are you aware that today you can participate in virtually every major lottery draw in the world from literally every corner of the planet?
We thought too that we knew it all until we read more about the subject to educate ourselves, which led us to compile this article about lotteries and how you can win at lotteries without taking part in the actual draw.
Play the Biggest Lotteries in the World Without Buying a Single Ticket for the Lottery Itself
All recently-launched lottery sites with the exception of the official national lottery sites offer some form of side draw, “Lottery betting” or so-called betting on the results of the actual lottery draws. They are not official ticket brokers & sellers but are betting sites that only offer the opportunity to place a bet on the results for the most popular lotteries in the world, regardless of place or time.
For example, by placing a bet on EuroJackpot at Megalotto you are actually betting on the results of the next EuroJackpot draw. You are not buying a ticket for the actual draw of the EuroJackpot round itself. For this reason, Unibet, Megalotto and others can sell EuroJackpot bets for €1.80 per entry, whereas the official lottery costs €2.00 per ticket, regardless of the country.
When a gaming company doesn’t sell you tickets for the real draw, they can also set the prices and hence the gaming margin to their liking. As a result, you can also participate in lotteries that you would not normally be able to from abroad.
How Profits Are Defined – Key Considerations About Terms
As you participate basically in a parallel draw, the winnings will not be paid out through the official lottery channel either (there are exceptions, more to that later in the Megalotto terms and conditions). The gaming operator through which you played your lottery line has defined its own terms for payouts and how the payout processes take place. Winnings are identical with the original draw, but payout schedules and terms may vary.
Examples of Megalotto Terms
As an authentic example, we are taking a closer look at Megalotto.com as it was launched in 2020 only. It is otherwise an extremely good gaming site licensed by the MGA Malta if you have yet to explore it.
Article 11.1 of the Megalotto Terms and Conditions states:
“Megalotto is not a lottery operator. With Megalotto, players are placing bets on the results of the draws of official and/or state-run lotteries and/or lottery-style draws using a certified Random Number Generator. ”
In other words, from the outset, the operator wants to make it clear that they are not a lottery operator, but a service that offers betting on lottery results. Here are a few of the most common ways to deal with payout categories and terms. These examples are copied from Megalotto.com, but essentially the same logic is used on all similar sites. Still, always read the terms carefully if you are buying coupons through another site.
“12.6.2. A winning bet will be treated equally to the same Payout a Player would have received, had they bought a winning ticket in the underlying lottery instead of placing a bet on a Megalotto game. If the underlying lottery organizer has not announced a Payout in the respective prize category for the relevant draw, the Winnings payable in respect of each winning bet in that prize category will be calculated by Megalotto on the basis of the published aggregate amounts paid in for the relevant draw announced by the operators and its allocation to the winning prize categories.”
It, therefore, means that your lottery tickets and payout categories will be processed according to the original lottery. So Megalotto does not create its own payout categories, but everything is in line with the original lottery. To understand this in plain language, let’s take a couple of examples from the next article at Megalotto.
“12.6.3. The Winnings payable in respect of each winning bet will depend on the number of winning tickets in the relevant prize category in the underlying lottery, the number of Network winning bets in the relevant prize category and the payable prize by the operators for the winning tickets in the relevant prize category. This amount will be calculated on the basis of the amount of aggregate lottery stakes published by the underlying lottery operators as well as the distribution to the prize categories or on the basis of the amount published on the website of the underlying lottery operators for the prize categories of the relevant draw. The total of all Winnings payable by Megalotto for the prize categories for a certain draw must never exceed the amount for the relevant draw and might be divided among the winners. ”
Example 1: There is only one Network winning bet in prize category 1 (jackpot) and no underlying lottery winning ticket has been announced by the respective lottery operator of a lottery jackpot of €90,000,000. The winnings payable in respect of that single Network winning bet amount would be €90,000,000.
Example 2: There is one Network winning bet in prize category 1 (jackpot) and two underlying lottery winning tickets have been announced by the respective lottery operator of an underlying lottery jackpot of €90,000,000. The Winnings payable in respect of that single Network winning bet amount would be €30,000,000.
Example 3: There are two Network winning bets in prize category 1 (jackpot) and no underlying lottery winning tickets have been announced by the respective lottery operator of an underlying lottery jackpot of €90,000,000. The Winnings payable in respect of that single Network winning bet amount would be €45,000,000.
So now you understand how your winnings are calculated and in the following, we will go through a few considerations about payouts. Because you can win tens of millions of Euro from someone who may not have this amount of own funds, they have two typical ways to secure solvency. The first and most common are financial instruments, i.e. funds raised from investors, insurance companies and banks (against interest expenses/insurance premiums) and the second is the situation where the operator has played lottery lines for you in the real lottery.
For example, if you win more than one million Euro from Megalotto.com, you will be faced with a situation in which they deduct the insurance company’s expenses in accordance with their terms. In this case 1.25%.
“12.6.9. Megalotto relies on third parties and financial instruments for the pay-out of higher-tier prizes. For any jackpot Winnings over €1,000,000, where we rely on the claims made to our third-party insurance provider, a claims fee amounting to 1.25% will be deducted from the winning amount.”
If, on the other hand a bookmaker, in this case Megalotto, has played the line and received payouts from the original lottery organizer, they will pay these winnings to your gaming or bank account. On the other hand, a small additional condition has been mentioned about the situation.
“Megalotto is obligated to pay the winnings to the player’s gaming account or, in accordance with the player’s instructions, to the bank account in accordance with Chapter 9 (See Chapter 9 above). This only happens if (i) Megalotto has received winnings from third parties;
Paragraph nine, which is more obviously referred to here, again states:
“11.9. Instead of using financial instruments to guarantee the Payout of the jackpots and Winnings offered on the Website, Megalotto may also order the purchase of actual entries into underlying lotteries. Megalotto may require winners for such entries to collect prizes directly from the underlying lottery operator. In the event that Winnings for such entries incur any taxes, duties or levies, these are to be borne by the Player. Under no circumstances shall Megalotto have any obligation to pay the Player an amount an underlying lottery operator may fail to pay the Player in connection with any Winnings for such entries.”
That paragraph, taken loosely, means that Megalotto could have played the line for you in a real draw as well, and if you did not receive money from the organizer of the original lottery against this coupon, Megalotto would not be obliged to reimburse and pay the winnings. It may sound unfair at first glance, but if we correctly assume the situation and get this original receipt for the original draw, then we think the situation is quite fair to all parties. When would a state-run lottery not have paid out the winnings as agreed?
And it’s good to remember that while U.S. lottery winnings often have to be redeemed from the state where the coupon was purchased, they often also accept remote redemptions, as long as the identification and other mandatory checks are done as directed.
So now you know how profit categories are calculated and the most typical terms for payouts and how an operator raises money for payouts of up to tens of millions through insurance and financial institutions. Next, we will go through a few different lottery types and their own terms. In the United States, for example, rotating lotteries such as Mega Millions, Powerball, and New York Lotto have their own different payout options for payouts, and bookmakers also take advantage of the same payout options. More on these in the next paragraph.
The Most Common Types of Lotteries, Where to Participate and How Much to Pay
When you can participate in lottery draws around the world through one site, then understandably the number of options will also increase significantly depending on what you are used to in your home country. If you have played one, two or three lotteries in the past, then in the future you can play a dozen or even several dozen different lotteries. Europeans can play the Brazilian lottery and, accordingly, Brazilians can participate in, for example, the Eurojackpot draw.
US Mega Millions
The Mega Millions started in 1996, when it was called the “Big Game”. The Big Game was initially offered in six U.S. states (Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan and Virginia).
Over the next few years, more Big Game draw days were added and New Jersey joined the network. In 2002, Big Game was renamed as Mega Millions. The next biggest change came in 2010 with the introduction of cross-selling between the Powerball and Mega Millions lotteries. Today, Mega Millions can be played in almost every state.
Mega Millions is a lottery as the name implies, as its TOP 10 main wins are quite a shocking read. The biggest jackpot was dealt in 2018 and soared to $ 1,537 million and the TOP 10 list is nothing short of $ 400 million in main winnings!
- In the Mega Millions, five main numbers are drawn from white balls between 1-70 and one “golden Mega Ball” between 1-25.
- The price per line is $2 and this is also the winning amount for the lowest payout category. Below you can see in more detail the payout categories, amounts and odds for that payout.
EuroMillions
Europe’s equivalent to Mega Millions with its own spices. A lottery that has been running since 2004 and is open to residents of Austria, Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and, of course, the United Kingdom. Draws are held twice a week, always on Tuesday and Friday nights. EuroMillions is the most popular lottery in Western Europe. The main win is a minimum of €17 million and at its highest, the pot has risen to €190 million. The average jackpot has been around €60 million.
- In the EuroMillions lottery, five numbers between 1-50 and two “Lucky Star” numbers between 1-12 are randomly drawn.
- The line price is £ / € 2.50 (Switzerland CHF 3.50).
The lowest payout category (two numbers correctly) is slightly higher than the ticket price, usually around €4. Below is a picture showing the percentages of the pot attributed to each winning category. The probability of the main win is 1: 139,838,160 and the probability of the lowest winning category (2 + 0) is 1:22.
EuroJackpot
The newest entrant in the European lottery, if you can say so for a product that is more than eight years old. EuroJackpot was launched in 2012 and is in many ways a substitute for Euro Millions for those European countries where Euro Millions cannot be played. On the other hand, in some countries such as Spain, you can also play both. Today, the countries participating in the official draw of EuroJackpot are Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Slovenia, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Croatia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.
The EuroJackpot lottery is very similar to other international big “Megalottos”.
- The player selects five numbers between 1-50 and two numbers between 1-10, the so-called “star numbers”. Previously, until 2014, EuroJackpot star numbers were drawn between 1-8, but that was changed when Hungary and the Czech Republic joined the network
- Currently, the probability of a EuroJackpot main win is 1:95 344,200. The probability of any win is 1:24, respectively. So this takes all profit categories into account.
Powerball
The Powerball lottery, seen in the United States since 1992 and keeping the people in suspense, is perhaps the best-known American lottery in Europe by its name and not least the shockingly high record pot handed out in 2016 when the jackpot rose to a staggering $1,586 million, or in other worse over a billion! This record pot was shared with California, Florida and Tennessee.
- In the Powerball lottery, five numbers between 1-69 and one “Powerball” number between 1-26 are drawn.
- Draws are held twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
- The player can also choose to buy a multiplier of 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10 to multiply all non-jackpot winnings.
- The price is $2 per line and the odds increase is an extra $1.
In the event of a jackpot win, the player can choose to redeem the win in a single but reduced amount or alternatively in annual instalments for the next 29 years.
The probability of any win is 1: 24.9 and the probability of a main win is 1: 292.1 million.
As so often, Powerball also donates a portion of its proceeds to charity. 50% goes to profit payments, 35% to charity, 6% to dealer commissions and 9% to operating expenses.
Which Sites to Bet on Lottery Draws?
You’ve got the basics on how to play international mega large lottery pots, regardless of location, and a brief overview of the best-known and biggest lottery draws. The next step, of course, would be to go and take part in the lottery betting. So where to play? The easiest choice is to place bets on familiar gaming sites that have been proven to be reliable from previous experience, which is especially important when it comes to potentially millions of euros in payouts!
We picked five popular and reliable lottery sites to feature at GMBLRS. These aren’t directly in any order particular of preference or quality, but you can rest assured not to go wrong when you start from the top and open accounts for every site though. Why open an account for every site, isn’t one enough? Well here is a good explanation below, namely the welcome offers, as well as the monthly benefits for loyal customers. These are extras that game operators offer you to play at their sites. There is nothing stopping you from collecting all the offers!
#1 Megalotto
We have been referring repeatedly the site in this article and thus it is only normal to bring up the newcomer of the year 2020 again. Excellent reputation, good technology, works on mobile and offers a great welcome offer at the time of writing.
- Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) licence
- All major lottery games
- Lottery offer for new customers
- Operated on prestigious iGamingCloud platform (familiar from casino sites including Rizk and Dunder)
- Works equally well on mobile and desktop
- No UKGC or Spelinspektionen licenses
- A limited selection of games in the casino section
#2 Speedylotto
A multi-brand company that also operates its own betting and online casinos and is now branching out into lotteries. Originally, it became known as a CasinoHeroes brand and is today a personal, independent and reliable game operator.
- Pay’n Play option
- Lots of lottery options
- Expert customer service
- No UKGC license
#3 Unibet
A leading European gaming operator with worldwide presence. All games from casino to betting and poker through the same site without forgetting the lottery, of course. One of the best if not the best gaming site in Europe.
- Very good reputation and history
- MGA and UKGC licenses
- EuroJackpot line price at a 10% discount!
- No worries about payouts even in the millions
- The interface and site design a little dated, but still very functional
#4 Thelotter
As the name implies, the main emphasis is on various lottery games. They operated under a licence from the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) as well as the Spelinspektionen for Swedish players. As a speciality, Thelotter is also a lottery broker, meaning their contacts buy lottery tickets to genuine original lotteries for you!
- Lots of lottery games
- Translated into several languages
- No special welcome offers
- No casino section
We hope you found your favourite lottery site and are excited as we are about potentially hitting a big win in the next draws. Lotteries provide plenty of excitement for little money and who knows, you might be the next jackpot winner. Someone always wins it and why couldn’t it be you tonight? However, never forget to play responsibly within your financial means. If lotteries are not your thing then it might be worth checking out our comprehensive list of offers for casino bonuses.
Yours,
Team GMBLRS