Do Illegal Lotteries Exist?

How can you a spot an illegitimate lottery game?
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  • Author:
    William Monroe
  • Published:
    10/08/2018

Lotteries are run by operators who are subject to the regulation of the gaming commission for that jurisdiction.

For lotteries to be considered legal, operators must conduct them in accordance with the direction and rules and regulations of the jurisdictional regulator. To be considered a legitimate and legal lottery, and at the heart of it, a legitimate and legal lottery draw, it must meet certain criteria set out by both the gaming regulator and the gaming operator.

What Makes a Lottery Legal?

In most jurisdictions, a lottery is only considered legal if it is run by an approved government agency or department under government legislative control. Also, in most jurisdictions, it is illegal for private agencies, companies, or individuals to run lotteries. These entities may hold draws, sweepstakes, and such for fundraising or other purposes, but not actual lotteries as we’ve come to know them.

Legal lotteries are overseen by the gaming regulator to ensure that the lottery as a whole, and each draw as an event, is conducted in the most honest way possible that ensures both random outcomes for wins and full transparency and ethical operations. Government oversite makes it mandatory that all lotteries are conducted with the buying public in mind. This ensures a lottery draw that is free from any type of influence or non-random outcome.

Lotteries not conducted under the auspices of government regulatory control have absolutely no guarantee in the honesty, integrity, or legitimacy of the draw.

There would be no recourse for players to complain or to get their money back if they suspect the draw was not conducted properly.

Unregulated lotteries are only as honest as the people or entities running them.

Without being subject to mandatory regulation, there is no guarantee that any prizes actually exist or have actually been won and awarded.

What Can Illegal Lotteries Affect?

Illegal gambling operations can hurt and compromise legitimate gaming operations and undermine legal gambling in such a way that players and their community might begin to think that legal lotteries are just as untrustworthy as illegal lotteries.

This can cause issues with players falsely believing they may have won something when they have not, but it also puts the entire lottery industry in peril, with the possibility of losing income, which, in turn, directly hurts the charities and organizations that benefit from lottery income.

Now, every honest and legitimate lottery is licenced by the government regulator with a licence number that can be asked to be seen at any time, and usually mounted at the gaming site, online at the operator’s website, and with each retailer. If an operator or retailer does not have a licence mounted or is hesitant or refuses to provide the licence number or licence, it is best to stay clear of that operator or retailer and only buy tickets where a licence is clearly visible/accessible.

“Illegal” lotteries can occur for other reasons as well, not just by bogus operators.

For instance, if a legitimate, licenced, and regulated lottery operator fails to adhere to a regulation, such as forgetting to renew an expiring licence, the lottery draws can be considered “illegal”, and the regulator could declare it null and void.

Lotteries conducted by unlicensed employees would also be considered illegal. Depending on the type of malfunction that might occur with computers or blowers and balls, the draw could be considered illegal rather than just null and void.

What Can You Do?

If you play the lottery, make sure the lottery is run by a licensed and authorized operator of the gaming regulator.

Make sure you buy tickets from an authorized and licensed retailer.

And if your gut gives you any type of signal that you should not buy that ticket, heed the warning and walk away.

You are spending your hard-earned cash for a chance to win the lottery. Make sure you are able to actually collect those winnings.

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