We take every effort to write lottery site reviews that are straightforward, heavy on facts, and light on opinion. Our goal with these reviews is not to persuade anyone one way or another – we only review safe lottery sites anyways. Instead, our goal is to present the facts and then let you choose the best site for you free of any influencing bias that would otherwise be present in opinion-heavy reviews.
This job is made easier by a policy we implement, which is not to bother with lottery sites that are unknown or untrustworthy. We only review lottery sites that are established and familiar to us in the industry. This makes it easy for us to write factual reviews.
Other Lottery Site Reviews:
How We Review Lottery Sites
Our lottery site reviews consist of a combination of firsthand research and information we have collected by just hopping online and researching what other people have had to say about each site. In our experience, combining firsthand experience with other peoples’ reviews has proven to be a reliable method for determining the overall quality of any particular lottery site.
This two-pronged approach allows us to offer reliable information by visiting and testing lottery sites for ourselves while also allowing us to utilize the power of crowdsourcing to get a general sense of each site’s reputation online.
We make every attempt to review every lottery site similarly to give each site equal footing and make it easy for you to compare various lottery sites against one another. For example, all of our reviews discuss how many lotteries are offered, so you can easily compare sites based on that metric if variety is an important factor in your decision.
Below are some of the main factors we consider in each lottery review.
Company Background and Reputation
Looking at the ownership behind each lottery site, the company history, and its general reputation on the web goes a long way in determining the safety of each lottery site. With potentially life-changing amounts of money at stake, we want to establish that each site is prepared and properly equipped to pay out on all winnings.
Lottery sites that buy physical tickets on your behalf must be well-established and have a verifiable history of getting winning tickets to winners. If a site has not yet been confirmed as legitimate, we do not feature that site anywhere here at BestLotterySites.com.
A 2015 Oregon lottery jackpot serves as the prime example of this kind of verification. In 2015, a man from Iraq won a $6.4 million jackpot from a ticket purchased through TheLotter. Local and national news stories popped up all over the place, confirming that the man had purchased his ticket online. These news stories confirmed that TheLotter does indeed purchase and deliver tickets as promised.
Our reviews of these sites describe how small and large winnings are paid, how tickets are purchased, and what arrangements are made in the eventuality of large wins. Does the site help you travel to claim large prizes in person? Do the site scan and upload images of every ticket purchase? These just some of the questions we ask as we research each lottery site.
Some other lottery sites serve as a betting service in which you bet on the outcome of the lottery and are paid by the lottery site itself if you win. Legitimate lottery betting sites match all official payouts but do not involve the purchase of actual lottery tickets.
When it comes to lottery betting sites, we check to see if they are licensed anywhere as bookmakers and whether or not they have insurance policies to cover major jackpots. When we conducted our Lottoland review, for example, we verified that the site has all four of the gaming licenses it claims to have, and then we linked to each of those licenses in our review.
Lotteries Offered
Our lottery site reviews list how many lotteries are made available for you to play as a customer. Most lotto sites cover all the big ones such as Powerball, Mega Millions, EuroMillions, the UK Lottery, etc. Still, there are major differences between sites when it comes to lesser-known lottos.
We also consider ticket pricing, subscription options, and whether or not discounts are offered for bulk ticket purchases. The goal is to make it easy for you to compare which sites provide the best value for your preferred lotteries and style of play.
Promotions and Offers
Most lottery sites boast a steady stream of promotional offers to attract new customers and reward loyal players. The types of promotions vary widely from one site to the next, so we dedicate a portion of each review to outlining what types of promotions are offered for players.
The most common type of promotion we have encountered over the years is the subscription discount. Discounted subscriptions give you more drawings for less money, which effectively makes each lottery entry cheaper. Other types of promotions include deposit bonuses, VIP programs, and sometimes even double jackpots. You can read more about these on our lottery promos page.
Terms and Conditions
One of the first things we do when considering a new lottery site is finding the terms and conditions page and give it a good read. The type of language found inside a terms and conditions page speaks volumes of a site’s overall quality.
It is in the terms and conditions, for example, that many lottery sites explain they reserve the right to choose whether to pay jackpots in one lump sum or to give you the annuity plan, which pays annually over many years. Either way, you still win a lot of money, but it’s good to know this information ahead of time.
The terms and conditions page also provides important information related to how each lottery site handles payments. This is where we find information such as how the site treats small wins versus how it handles jackpot wins, what happens when you win a big payout, whether or not lottery tickets are scanned, and much more.
Our lottery site reviews always include important information found on the terms and conditions page. We also link directly to that page near the top of each review so you can give it a read for yourself before signing up.
Other Reviews and Customer Comments
We tend to be skeptical of reviews published at other websites because many so-called reviews read more like promotional advertisements, but some useful websites offer a balanced perspective. We also scan discussion forums and the comments sections of various blogs for comments left by former players.
This gives us a big picture look at how real players regard a site. Every large business is bound to have its share of disgruntled former customers, but we also believe in the adage of “where there is smoke, there is fire.” If there are too many disgruntled former customers and negative reviews out there, we take it as a sign that something isn’t right at that site.