Lottery games are the world’s most popular form of gambling. Organized for hundreds of years, giving the possibility to claim amazing, life-changing prizes. The jackpots are counted in millions or even hudreds of millions so it’s not a surprise they attract players who’d like to see such an amount on their bank account balance, quit their day-job, buy a new house, a luxury sportscar and go for a trip around the world without worrying about the funds.
Lottery games are also a huge industry, it’s been said that it’s worth twice as much as the Hollywood movie industry in the US alone. Like everything, lotteries have evolved throughout the years. We’ll take a look at a few most popular ones and next go to the bitcoin lottery, a new kind of game that tries to impact the lottery market and redefine the lotteries we know nowadays.
The most popular lottery games in the United States
Powerball is the first lottery game we’ll take a look at. Powerball is probably the most popular lottery game in the world, played by millions. Based on 5 out of 69 and 1 out of 26, Powerball is the current record-holder for the biggest jackpot ever claimed. The amount is really enormous and actually hard to imagine: $1,5 billion. This lottery game dates back to 1998 and initially it was held under the name of „Lotto America”. Traditional, paper tickets are available in numerous outlets in 44 states in U.S. and also online.
Mega Millions is another game played mostly by people in the United States and online lottery game players. Started back in just a few states in 1996 as „The Big Game”, this lottery game gained popularity very quickly and the tickets became available all throughout the country. It was renamed to its current Mega Millions name in 2002 and an additional draw on Tuesday was also introduced. The reason of its popularity is simple, the jackpots. Although Powerball is the record holder, the jackpots in Mega Millions are also breathtaking. Let’s just say the highest jackpot ever reached $656 million and was claimed by three lucky players.
Europe’s biggest lottery games
Lottery games are also popular in Europe, for the same reasons as the ones originating from the U.S. Eurojackpot is probably the most popular lottery game on this continent. It’s a relatively new game, as the first draw was held in 2011. First interesting thing about this lottery is the fact that the tickets are available in 14 countries all over the continent. The maximum jackpot is capped at 90 million euros and such an amount was claimed for the first time by a Czech citizen back in 2015.
Another fact worth mentioning is that when such a rollover occurs, the player doesn’t need to pick all the numbers correctly to become a millionaire. Second-prize tiers in Eurojackpot are extremely attractive too. The highest second-tier prize was claimed on June 30th 2018 and amounted to almost seven million euros.
Euromillions is another European lottery game loved by millions of players. The tickets are available in nine countries: France, Belgium, Austria, Luxembourg, Ireland, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. EuroMillions draws are held on Tuesdays and Fridays and the players’ task is to pick 5 main numbers out of 50 and 2 bonus numbers within 1 to 12 range. Once again it’s the jackpots that draw the attention of lotto players. The maximum main prize may reach up to 190 million euros, and that’s the amount that was claimed back in 2014.
National lottery games
We’ve went through the four biggest lottery games in the United States and Europe, but there are some more interesting games to play, the national lotteries. First one being worth mentioning is SuperEnalotto. Organized locally in the sunny Italy since the 50’s, initially called EnaLotto draws the attention of the players with (suprise!) the jackpots.
Even though the chances of winning the main prize are really low (1 in 622 614 630), the jackpot is attractive enough for the players to participate in the draw of this lottery game taking place three times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The biggest jackpot was claimed on October 30th 2010 and was split among a syndicate of 70 players, bringing them a breathtaking amount of €177 729 043,16.
One more lottery we’d like to tell you about before hopping on the 21st century bitcoin lottery train is the UK Lottery – the national lottery of the United Kingdom. This lottery started its operation back in 1994. Initially the draws were held only on Saturdays, but an additional draw was introduced on Wednesdays. This lottery game is based on 6/59 matrix and the minimum jackpot is £2 500 000. The main prize may reach up to £22 000 000, so it’s surely an amount firing up the imagination of British players. What’s interesting, in case the maximum jackpot doesn’t get claimed (none of the players picks all six numbers correctly) it gets split equally among those who picked five numbers correctly in the draw.
Bitcoin lotery – a new kind lottery game?
Cryptocurrencies, especially the king of them all, Bitcoin with the blockchain technology backing it up is one of the biggest things in the digital world for quite a few years now. Initially created by an anonymous hiding behind the name of Nakamoto Satoshi as a new form of currency that aims at revolutionizing the finances globally, became mostly a store of wealth.
The thing that draws more and more attention of the IT world nowadays is the blockchain technology initially backing up the cryptocurrency, which gained a lot of adoption. When the bitcoin boom started, adding it to any project or industry was giving it a boost on autopilot. This is how bitcoin lottery was created. Actually, the term is pretty wide, so we’ll take a look at what stands behind this name and if it managed to gain as much popularity as the traditional lotteries we know for years.
How does bitcoin lottery work?
One might think that a bitcoin lottery is something equally revolutionary as bitcoin being a completely new kind of currency, especially minding the blockchain technology. As we already said, there are a few types of games called „bitcoin lottery”, but in general, they don’t really differ from the lotteries like the ones we all play. The rules of any lottery require the player to pick a set of numbers and purchase a ticket to participate in the draw.
If his prediction was right, he wins a prize. In case of bitcoin lottery, things are no different. Still, there’s one thing that differs most of bitcoin lottery games from the traditional ones, the winnings are usually collected in cryptocurrencies used for the lottery, so you can also find ethereum and other crypto-related lotteries.
When it comes to the prize, the pool is created from the bitcoin lottery ticket sales, with the jackpot being a significant part of it, reaching up to 60%. Depending on a specific bitcoin lottery and its operator, the other part is being split among those, who manage to claim one of the lower-tier prize. As you can see, apart from the prize which is claimed in bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies and the tickets, which are paid for with bitcoins, the game itself isn’t that different. Still, there are some pros and cons which should be considered by the player while deciding to participate in bitcoin lottery draw. Some of them offer tickets for a really low and attractive price, but on the other hand, most of them are not regulated, so there’s actually no guarantee the winner will actually see his prize – that has been the case with BitLotto, one of the first bitcoin lottery games, which failed to payout the prizes after just two years of operation.
Types of bitcoin lotteries
We have already said that bitcoin lottery is a wide definition. The common thing is usually paying for the tickets and collecting the prizes in bitcoins. Even though being called a bitcoin lottery, some of those websites offer the possibility to exchange the traditional currencies to bitcoins or other crypto.
Some lotteries, apart from calling themselves bitcoin lotteries, actually utilize the results of traditional lotto while only selling the tickets and paying out the prizes in bitcoin. Participating in such is actually identical to participating in traditional lotteries – the player fills in the ticket with his numbers for the draw, pays using his cryptocurrency wallet for it, and finally waits for the results of the draw.
This kind of lotteries isn’t anyhow revolutionary, as cryptocurrencies become just a payment method for the tickets and prizes and do not utilize the blockchain technology (apart from the payment process of course). Still, there are some players who like this kind of lotteries, as they are based on the known lotteries like Eurojackpot lottery, and they can use their favourite cryptocurrency.
Yet, there are some more technologically advanced bitcoin lottery games out there, taking advantage of the blockchain. Usually they are provably fair, which means that thanks to utilizing it the whole process of the draw is perfectly transparent and can be checked any time on the blockchain. Furthermore, the use of the blockchain guarantees that the draw results cannot be changed.
Seems like a true revolution ruling out the lottery games out of any doubt or uncertainty, right? That’s almost true. Unfortunately, there’s also a downside of playing any bitcoin lottery, whether it uses the traditional lottery results or it’’s a provably fair, technologically advanced game utilizing the blockchain. Same as with many bitcoin-related projects, even while being legit, they often lack regulation, and that’s a huge downside. The operator may just shut down the site down and disappear, as it was the case with BitLotto, and the player who was just so happy with winning a great prize ends up with nothing. We must agree that’s a not a position you’d like to find yourself at.
Bitcoin lottery payment
Assuming you’re a lottery games lover (as we are) and a cryptocurrency enthusiast at the same time (as we are!), you may be asking yourself if there’s a way to utilize your favourite cryptocurrency for playing a trustworthy lotto game online without having to worry about being scammed and ending up with nothing?
LottoPark is here for you! We offer the world’s greatest lotteries with their absolutely amazing jackpots, while you can pay using more than ten cryptocurrencies, including the most popular ones: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ripple or Lisk to begin with. Whether your favourite lottery is the famous Powerball, the European Eurojackpot or maybe you’d like to try your luck in GG World Lottery, which provides the world’s biggest guaranteed minimum jackpot - $ 100 000 000 – you can pick your numbers and pay for the ticket using the cryptocurrency of your choice. Good luck in the draw!
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