On July 1, the Virginia Lottery will begin offering Mega Millions, Powerball and Cash4Life tickets online. All three games are multi-jurisdictional interstate draws. The Virginia Lottery also will offer one instant game, Northern Wilds, with new instant online games added every few weeks.
Interactive lottery software developer Instant Win Gaming will supply the online games. IWG also provides internet lottery games for Michigan and New Hampshire.
Earlier this year, the Virginia General Assembly voted to repeal existing laws banning online lottery ticket sales. Governor Ralph Northam signed off on the legislation in March. Virginia now will become the ninth state with an online lottery; the others are Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
Covid-19 has caused sharp declines in lottery revenue nationwide. The Virginia Lottery reported profits dropped 28 percent in March; no figures are available yet for April and May but officials said sales fell significantly.
The Virginia Lottery launched in 1989 and since then more than $39.4 billion in tickets have been sold. After paying out prizes of $22.7 billion, retailer compensation of $2.2 billion and operating expenses of $2.2 billion, the lottery has won more than $12.4 billion. Proceeds support K-12 public education and provide about 10 percent of Virginia’s annual education budget.
