A World of Lottery Information on Display

Lottery websites come in all shapes and sizes, with common elements and a variety of specialized information.

By Patricia McQueen

Published June 23, 2026

By necessity, lottery websites serve multiple audiences. First and foremost, they are for players – although these days many players will likely use a lottery’s mobile app, if available. That said, websites contain a wealth of information that may not be practical for an app. Lottery websites also serve the media. When there’s a big winner or a great story in a given jurisdiction, having useful information readily available might make it more likely to find its way into media coverage. Retailers also use lottery websites – every lottery includes various degrees of information for retailers, from those interested in becoming a lottery retailer to existing retailers who manage their lottery accounts through a login.

This article takes a look at lottery websites around the country, highlighting common features which may help determine best practices. It’s not an attempt to actually define those best practices, however. Just as games and player characteristics vary by jurisdiction, so can lottery websites. One size does not fit all. Note that our review was based on a computer view for better clarity on the information provided; mobile versions of these sites may vary, depending on how they are constructed.

We note that Canadian lottery operators are quite different from their American counterparts, and may have different website needs and content guidelines. As a result, they are not included here.

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Top Features

The most critical information is about the games a lottery offers and the winning numbers for draw games. There’s a lot of variation in the way this information is presented on a lottery home page, but almost all lotteries show winning numbers for the latest drawing of each game along with the jackpot amount for the next drawing. For those lotteries with scratch games (all but two U.S. lotteries), featured games also take front and center.

Every lottery has some indication of where the money goes on their website. It might be just a sentence on an “About” page, a main menu item and/or home page content. Not surprisingly, lotteries that benefit education and scholarships are more likely to shout it from the rafters with – in many cases – loads of related content. Lotteries with other tangible beneficiaries are also likely to showcase examples of lottery-funded projects and services.

Responsible play is another area where every lottery has at least some information on the topic. Again, however, coverage varies widely across jurisdictions, from a page of information to more extensive coverage about responsible play, positive play, available resources, etc. About 30 lotteries have RG featured prominently and included in their main menus.

Information on scams isn’t as widely covered, with 38 lotteries including the topic somewhere. Most frequently it is under player protection or player security, but isn’t always easy to find.

Most lotteries also feature frequently asked questions in one or more sections. About 15 have FAQs as a main menu item, while another 20 have FAQs on a menu dropdown, often under About Us. Still others have relevant FAQs on specific pages, such as game pages, or on a master Help page.

Search tools aren’t quite as common, with 28 lotteries offering a search function on the home page or through a menu item; a few more have search options only on specific pages (such as FAQs or Help), rather than sitewide.

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Nearly a dozen lotteries let users change the language from English; all of those have at least Spanish translation; a few have French and selected other options.

Thirteen lotteries group some of the most helpful pages for players in a dedicated Players section of some sort – Zone or Hub, Tools, Resources, Info, or simply Players. In this section might be links for how and where to play, winning numbers (current and past), promotions, how to claim prizes, a players’ club, responsible play, scams, and more. Lotteries with this type of structure at the time of review are Arkansas, Connecticut, DC, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Texas and Wyoming. Although in the minority among lotteries, this structure makes considerable sense, as it puts the most relevant items for players front and center.

Quite a few lotteries still show their drawings (drawn with balls or presented with animated videos if using RNGs) on their website, even as YouTube has become a repository for most lottery drawings. In some cases all of a day’s drawings are packaged together in one video presentation. Keno and other monitor games are presented live on the lottery’s website in several jurisdictions. And most websites have links to the Powerball and Mega Millions draw videos.

About a dozen lotteries include a list of unclaimed draw game prizes, with various threshold amounts for inclusion on that list.

There’s a wide variety of other information presented on websites. You’ll typically find a short history of each lottery, but 14 lotteries include a detailed year-by-year timeline of game launches and retirements, big winners and other information. The Iowa and Missouri Lotteries include a downloadable Fact Book that provides just about any bit of game information and history that a reporter or other interested party would be looking for.

You’ll also find a wide variety of home page designs. Some lotteries are minimalists when choosing content for display, while others incorporate a number of different types of content. And all but nine lotteries use carousels to display varying content front and center.

It should be noted that in most cases, content on lottery websites is interwoven, so a specific page may be linked from more than one other page.

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Time for a Change

We asked lotteries if they have players test or otherwise give opinions on their website, either in advance of a major redesign or simply for ongoing improvements. Only a few lotteries addressed the subject, with some indicating that they do not actively request input from players. Others provided insights on their strategies.

The British Columbia Lottery Corp. conducts user testing and gathers player feedback as part of ongoing optimization efforts, including prior to more significant updates. These insights help inform improvements to usability, navigation, and overall player experience.

The Illinois Lottery uses Adobe Target, a platform that enables A/B testing and personalization, to optimize the digital experience for players. The digital, marketing and product teams come together to develop, execute, and measure tests across the Lottery’s website and app to better understand player behavior and continuously improve engagement and usability. Several enhancements have been implemented as a result of this work, including individual Fast Play game tiles on the homepage, updated design treatments that better showcase new game launches, and a scrolling ticker highlighting recent prize winners. By continuously testing and learning, data-driven improvements can create a more relevant and engaging experience for players.

While the Kentucky Lottery does not seek feedback directly from players, tools such as HotJar help understand what website content players are engaging with most frequently, areas of the website that might benefit from a more efficient design, and how players navigate through various pages of the website. That information is used to make design changes or to ensure that the Lottery continues to offer features and promotions that players frequently visit.

The Massachusetts Lottery may not formally ask players to review its website and app, but any player feedback is still incorporated into website and app enhancements. For example, feedback inspired some of the game filter options, with game tags including Limited Offer, Second Chance, Scan to Enter, and Ending Soon.

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Florida’s Journey With a New Website

Following the launch of a redesigned website in January 2023, the Florida Lottery conducted player feedback and usability research in 2024 to better understand how players were using the site and identify opportunities for improvement.

Overall, players responded positively to the experience, with 70% reporting satisfaction with the website. The research also reinforced how important lottery websites remain to players, with respondents visiting an average of five times per week and 22% of core players reporting multiple visits per day.

One of the clearest findings was that lottery websites are highly task driven. Players primarily visit to check winning numbers, jackpot amounts, Scratch-Off remaining prizes, promotional entries, and game information. As a result, players consistently emphasized the importance of a simple, intuitive, and mobile-friendly experience that allows them to quickly find the information they need.

The most common opportunities for improvement centered on navigation, page speed, and making key information easier to locate, particularly on mobile devices. Players generally were not asking for more features as much as they were asking for faster, simpler access to the features and information they use most frequently.

A recent example involved player confusion surrounding the Fireball add-on feature for the PICK Daily Games. The customer service team received a high volume of calls from players seeking clarification on winning scenarios and ticket outcomes. In response, updates are being made to the winning numbers page to better display Fireball combinations, a dedicated educational page is being developed to explain winning scenarios more clearly, and “How to Play” video content is being enhanced with step-by-step guidance.

One of the biggest lessons learned from the research is that lottery websites function primarily as utility tools. Players typically arrive with a specific task in mind and want to complete it quickly. Whether checking winning numbers, viewing jackpots, researching games, or entering promotions, success often comes down to reducing friction and making essential information easy to find across all devices.

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Virginia’s Renewed Dedication to Player Feedback

The Virginia Lottery now has a rigorous process for major website redesigns. Through its customer satisfaction partner Verint, surveys are conducted that provide monthly quantitative scores on look and feel, navigation and site performance, as well as qualitative voice of the customers’ free responses. Along with social media monitoring, these resources are used to identify pain points in the player journey. Once an improvement is prioritized, the Lottery team works with UX designers to incorporate player feedback. Prototypes of new designs are produced, and together with Verint there are user interviews to test the concepts. Feedback from those interview sessions go back into revisions, which are then often shared with a wider audience through a survey that helps fine tune the results.

In the past year, this process was used to redesign the Lottery’s homepage and game lobby with the goal of streamlining information, serving it up at the right time to the right player. In working with players, the team identified positive sentiment for features that had not been considered digital best practices, like a homepage banner carousel. In fact, a heatmap of the homepage shows that players are clicking through the navigational controls on this new element to view all five-to-seven banners.

However, this dedication in securing feedback wasn’t always in play. A new website that launched in January 2019 was – despite the best intentions – not well received by players. Average user satisfaction on the website plummeted from about 80 (out of 100) to 24 for desktop browsers and to 50 for mobile users. Users couldn’t find information they were used to seeing, some browsers had technical challenges, and because the new responsive design eliminated a separate mobile version, links were broken.

The bottom line was that the Lottery failed to gather feedback from players, there was no user testing, and nothing was provided to players preparing them for a big change.

That experience is what led the team to implement regular user testing and gather ongoing feedback, as noted above. And they learned that perhaps it’s better to introduce more incremental changes that improve on pain points, rather than making a sweeping change all at once.

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Managing Accessibility           

New rules for ADA accessibility for web and mobile app content are scheduled to take effect beginning in April 2027 for state and local government entities. A little more than half of U.S. lotteries currently have some sort of accessibility statement, mentioning their compliance with existing rules. Some of those also provide direct contact information to inquire about accessibility needs or to request documents in alternative formats.

The South Dakota Lottery is the only one that currently has a menu that allows users to fine-tune numerous accessibility options, such as text size and spacing, contrast, colors and highlights, and page structure; there's even a dyslexia-friendly option. “We want to ensure that our website is accessible to all, and our web developers thought this would be a solution to provide players with the ability to customize elements such as color contrast, text size and more,” explains Wade LaRoche, Director of Advertising and Public Relations. “It’s a huge step in the right direction” for meeting the new requirements.

He adds that one of the more challenging items is ensuring that existing PDF documents will be ADA compliant. “We are making progress, and we’ve been able to implement some new procedures and best practices that should set us up for compliance moving forward.”

Happy Browsing!

There are clearly a myriad of ways to design a website, and a number of factors contribute to the end result. We hope this review of the most common lottery website features, and insights from a few lotteries that have acted on player feedback, is helpful.