Online Inroads Continue

It’s been a busy year for online lottery developments, with a Delaware launch, expansion in Rhode Island, and Massachusetts about ready to join the club.

By Patricia McQueen

Published June 23, 2026

This summer, the Massachusetts Lottery will be the 18^th American lottery to launch online sales in one form or another. Its iLottery platform, developed in partnership with Aristocrat Interactive, will be rolled into the existing website and app, so all tools will continue to be available – including those that focus on retail purchases. For example, ticket scanning and mobile cashing on the app, and a retail location finder on both the app and website. And once online sales begin, the platform will also feature multiple responsible gambling and player wellness tools including play limits, win-loss reports, a session timer display, a reality check after 30 minutes of play, and cooling off periods.

Massachusetts will offer both eInstants and draw games, as do Georgia, Michigan, Kentucky, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Virginia, District of Columbia, West Virginia and Kansas. Offering only draw games are Illinois, North Dakota, Connecticut and Tennessee; New York offers online subscriptions only for selected draw games. Delaware offers only eInstants at this time, but as described later in this article, its journey will soon include draw games.

Elsewhere, New Jersey continues to work toward launching online sales. There have also been recent efforts to pass iLottery legislation in Louisiana, but this year’s session ended with a withdrawn bill, so it waits at least another year.

ADVERTISEMENT

Updates With a Retail Focus

Lotteries’ online platforms get fairly regular updates and upgrades, and a few lotteries shared information about recent developments, in some cases adding more ways to involve retailers in the online sales process.

The British Columbia Lottery Corp. continues to evolve its online platform to improve the overall player experience. The organization is also also exploring ways to better connect digital and retail channels, ensuring retailers remain an important part of the ecosystem.

While not a direct change to its online sales program, the Illinois Lottery increased the amount a player can redeem at vending from $100 to $200 last December. To help drive awareness and support retail reinvestment, new messaging notified players of this change when they scanned instant tickets in the Lottery’s app. Initiatives like this demonstrate continued focus on ensuring that digital and retail channels work together, and improve the overall player experience to meet their expectations regardless of their preferred method to play.

Last spring, the Kentucky Lottery updated its iLottery platform and website to expand promotion capabilities and create a more frictionless player experience. And just this past February, the Lottery completed a state-of-the-art retail modernization project and upgraded its central gaming system. An important feature of these projects included “Connected Play,” which merges the retail and online player experience. Players can use funds in their Kentucky Lottery Fun Club accounts to purchase tickets online or anywhere in the retailer network, at vending or the counter. Players can use the mobile app to redeem winning scratch and draw game tickets, and place the prize amounts into their Kentucky Lottery Fun Club accounts. These funds are available to the players immediately and are stored in the winnings pocket.

The Pennsylvania Lottery is in the process of updating its online platform. Players can expect improved performance, easier gameplay access, and streamlined registration and purchasing capabilities. The redesigned platform will also provide increased visibility of, and easier access, to responsible gambling tools and resources.

ADVERTISEMENT

Since Pennsylvania launched online sales in 2018, retailers have had opportunities to be part of iLottery and earn money through an affiliate customer referral program; WebCash sales, in which retailers earn commission; and the Lottery’s omnichannel marketing strategies that help drive online players into retail.

Earlier this year, the Rhode Island Lottery added draw games to its online portfolio, which initially launched in 2020 with only eInstants and Keno. All games except Bingo (a monitor game complement to Keno) are now offered online; that game is being evaluated for possible inclusion at a later date. Adding draw games to the iLottery portfolio were part of a phased approach that began with a platform upgrade in March 2025 that enabled these games on the system. Powerball, Mega Millions and Wild Money were added in January; they were followed in February by Millionaire for Life and The Numbers game.

Also included in that platform upgrade were digital play slips and a virtual player card, which offers the ability to deposit money to an iLottery account using cash at any lottery retailer. These iDeposits earn a 5% commission for retailers.

The addition of draw games allowed for expanded promotions beyond just giving away bonus money; for example, omnichannel promotions offering free tickets for qualifying purchases. The 2025 upgrade also included a new CRM platform with the ability to send targeted messaging to different player segments, create customer journeys, and run push notifications and in-app messages, which have been successful in helping reach non-registered players.

The Virginia Lottery has a number of programs that involve retailers, such as withdrawal vouchers that allow players to cash their iLottery winnings at retail or Online Cash that allows players to purchase funds at retail to deposit online. Additionally, the Rewards program allows tickets to be entered from both iLottery and retail purchases, and the players can use points to get retail coupons so retailers are encouraged to be remind players to participate in Rewards. While not directly for retailers, the Lottery’s Sales Reps incentive plan was adjusted to include iLottery purchases so that they are incentivized to support the program and the bridge between iLottery and retail.

ADVERTISEMENT

Delaware Comes on Board

The Delaware Lottery is the latest to launch online sales, introducing eInstants last October to build momentum in the highly competitive Mid-Atlantic gaming market. Players in the state have access to casinos, online gaming, sports betting and neighboring state gaming options, all competing for the same entertainment dollars.

The iLottery launch with technology provider Scientific Games focused on creating a seamless player experience, strengthening relationships with the Lottery’s 80,000 Players Club members, and laying the groundwork for long-term success. Instead of introducing iLottery as a completely separate destination, the program was integrated into the Delaware Players Club loyalty app, creating a natural extension of a platform players already knew and trusted. “Our launch strategy reduced friction from the outset," says Roman Rubas, the Lottery’s Assistant Director of Gaming. "Players could transition more easily into the digital experience while maintaining continuity with the Lottery brand they had already embraced.”

The Lottery also made retailer engagement a priority, a strategy to address retailer concerns about negative impact on their business despite plenty of industry evidence that the introduction of iLottery does not reduce retailer commissions.

In addition, a retailer affiliate program was in place at launch. Participating retailers could display a code for their location and market that code to their customers. When a player signs up using that code, the retailer benefits in one of two ways, depending on their own choice. One option is to receive $50 cash for each player who signs up for iLottery and who deposits and plays at least $10. The other is to receive 10% of net gaming revenue from that player over a two-year period.

These revenue opportunities encouraged retailers to embrace the new iLottery platform, and since launch the majority of retailer feedback has been positive.

In another nod to retailers, the Lottery offers Web Cash, a retail purchase that provides a standard commission to retailers; players add that to their online account. There are promotions from time to time, including the ongoing Web Cash Wednesdays. These promotions may include matching deposits up to $100. There are also Powerball or Mega Millions coupons offered to players, redeemable at retail.

“We hope these things drive online players into the stores, so we can cross-sell all Lottery products,” explains Rubas. “We want to make it as convenient as possible for the player. We’re going to take advantage of anything we can do to make that experience more seamless.”

The Lottery is proceeding strategically with eInstants, because it also regulates the state's online casinos. “We have a competitive casino product that has thousands of slot games, so we launched eInstant games that were very basic. We had to spend a lot of time making sure that the product was differentiated from the online casino products.” For example, there are no slot-themed games or traditional casino imagery, and the game reveals look nothing like those of online casino games. “We are conservative in the look and feel of our eInstant games to make sure that players wouldn’t think they’re casino games.”

In January, the Lottery started advertising and promoting eInstants, formally ending the soft launch period. A spring campaign focused on Players Club recruitment. “We’re steadily growing our revenue, averaging double-digit growth each month, as we build that database of players.”

Later this year, the Lottery’s main website at delottery.com will be completely modernized and updated, adding much more visibility to the online games available at deilottery.com. Initially the goal was to have it ready earlier, but a need to meet and exceed new ADA guidelines on website accessibility pushed the broader redesign back.

Rubas is encouraged by both the early results and the runway ahead. “We have a lot of room for growth once draw games are added,” he says. “And we’re still in the early stages of expanding the eInstant portfolio.” Delaware plans to add third-party content over time, broadening player choice and strengthening the overall offering. “We have a lot of opportunity here.”

ADVERTISEMENT

He expects that despite Delaware’s small size, there is already a solid digital presence for online gameplay. Younger adults who are more tech-savvy players are not currently playing traditional lotteries, but they are playing sports betting in particular (another product offered by the Lottery in partnership with the casinos). “That’s the market that the digital product is going to attract.”

In one very important respect, the experience with iGaming set iLottery up for success. Delaware already had in place successful strategies for iGaming, from know-your-customer procedures to geo-location technologies to payment handling. Geo-location in particular is challenging in the small state, where crossing the street can put a player in a different state.

Rubas is looking forward to the addition of draw games, especially the big national games. “A big jackpot run will be exciting for even higher player acquisition.”