Report says U.S. leaving money on the table
A new study could encourage states in the U.S. to rethink reservations about online lottery tickets.
According to CalvinAyre.com, Lottovate, the online lottery platform subsidiary of betting operator Tipp24, wants more U.S. lotteries to go digital. Currently, only Illinois, Minnesota and Georgia sell lottery tickets online.
Lottovate commissioned the UK-based market research firm YouGov to study the potential of online lotteries in the U.S., and found that more than 27 percent of American adults are interested in playing lottery games on their computers or mobile devices. About 41 percent of existing retail lottery players were also interested in online options, and more than 8 percent of U.S. adults who currently don’t play the lottery would play if the online option existed.
The research revealed “a clear consumer demand for interactive play and a huge revenue opportunity,” as much as $17.5 billion per year, said Lottovate Managing Director Zuriñe Sáez de Viteri.
Those figures don’t jibe with estimates from Morgan Stanley, which originally pegged the online cash gaming industry at $3.5 billion by 2017, but has had to downgrade those expectations to $1.3 billion.
