New Mobile App Allows Lottery Gamblers to Buy Tickets Through Their Phones

Almost all the lottery tickets sold in the US are bought through convenience stores, gas stations, supermarkets and other designated retailers. With so many apps now available on mobile devices it was only a matter of time before one was created to potentially replace the role of these stores.

He Who Shoutz Loudest

A new partnership was announced between Shoutz an Austin, Texas start-up and the Mega Millions lottery, which will bring the game to its LotteryHUB mobile app - an ingenious system that alerts a user when their numbers come up. This is in direct competition with the Powerball lottery game - as each of the two largest companies now vies for an even larger slice of the $78bn-a-year U.S. lottery industry.

A Level Playing Platform?

The development of the app however, has not met with universal approval. The National Association of Convenience Stores argues that not only do lottery tickets themselves constitute a crucial revenue stream for small stores, but also the reliance on the associated customer traffic. Shoutz intends to take a percentage of the cost of a lottery ticket when using their app. Their aim is to provide people an easier way to buy their lottery tickets and check their numbers. An estimated $800m of lottery winnings per year remain unclaimed for multiple reasons and those who argue for ‘going digital' point to this as an obvious benefit.