Want to buy a Powerball ticket online? Odds are you can’t – legally, anyway. According to the official Powerball website, most of the states
in the Powerball network, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands
all forbid online Powerball ticket sales on official state lottery
sites, Those that do permit such transactions still require purchasers
to be within same-state boundaries. If your state isn’t in the Powerball
network, you might have to travel to a participating state to make a
legal ticket purchase.
Since gambling is regulated by state law, the regulations in your state determine whether you can buy lottery tickets with plastic. In
Connecticut, for example, you cannot buy tickets with a credit card. But
you can use a gift card or debit card – unless the specific retailer
prohibits using debit. In a handful of states, including Tennessee and
South Carolina, lottery tickets may only be bought with cash.
Other states, including Pennsylvania and Kansas, leave it up to individual retailers to decide which forms of payment to accept.The main
reason for prohibiting the use of credit cards is that compulsive
gamblers could accumulate unmanageable debt. Credit counselors warn that
this is primarily an issue for people with poor financial self-control.
“If you don’t have enough cash to buy a lottery ticket, you shouldn’t be paying with a credit card,” says Bruce McClary, spokesman
for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. “Irresponsible use of
credit can lead to unmanageable debt and the serious consequences that
follow. Whether it is fueled by gambling or other factors, overspending
is a serious problem that deserves immediate attention.”
“If a machine can’t accept credit cards, their next instinct might be to go to an ATM and get a cash advance with their credit card,” said
McClary. Because of the high APRs typically associated with credit card
cash advance transactions, “You are actually ending up costing yourself
more by doing that. It’s a very dangerous move to consider getting a
cash advance to pay for a lottery ticket.”Some businesses are seizing
the opportunity to target lottery players who want to use plastic, but
may not have that option in their area. Use them with caution when
attempting to buy lottery tickets online.
Third-party lottery sale websites such as Nicosia, allow consumers to purchase lottery tickets online, with credit cards as one of the
payment options. They’ll send someone to buy the ticket on your behalf
and then hold them. You pay a premium for the service, and you have to
trust they’ll pay off.
The Powerball site issues this warning: “There are no regulations of websites that claim to sell tickets or to sell you a ’service’ to buy
and hold tickets for you. Many lotteries believe that they would violate
state and federal laws if they paid on those tickets purchased (if
actually purchased) by an unlicensed reseller.”
