Online Lottery Gets the Word Out

15 March 2002

A company promoting its service of selling California lottery tickets via the Internet this week caught the attention of the California Lottery's legal division.

eSuperLOTTO.com Inc. issued a press release on Wednesday announcing the launch of what it was calling "the first Internet Lottery Captain Web site to service players or groups of players who want to order tickets for a chance to win the California Super Plus Lotto jackpot estimated at $54 million."


"Sales of lottery tickets on the Internet are not authorized, nor are they legal."
- Cathy Doyle Johnston
California Lottery

The release stated that the company has exclusive partnerships with many lottery outlets in California that enable "qualified" players to "quickly and safely" purchase tickets at those outlets by placing orders online.

Cathy Doyle Johnston, a spokeswoman for the California Lottery, said the press release is what alerted the lottery to the company's service. Selling California lottery tickets on the Internet is not legal. Johnston said the lottery's legal department is investigating the matter.

"They do know about it, and they are looking into it and seeing what should be done about it," she said.

In February the California Lottery issued a press release warning consumers not to purchase lottery tickets over the Internet because the sale is illegal and could land the consumer with a lottery ticket he or she can't collect on.

"There are 19,000 retailers in California who are authorized to sell SuperLotto Plus tickets," said Joan Wilson, the lottery's director. "Sales of lottery tickets on the Internet are not authorized, nor are they legal."

The eSuperLOTTO.com release said it would accept payment in the form of Visa or MasterCard. The release did not offer a phone number for the operation, just an e-mail address. An e-mail to the site from IGN requesting comments on the issue was not replied to.