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Online Lottery in India (2024)

A lottery is one of the most popular games of luck in the world because the prizes are usually life-changing. With the development of the Internet, online lotteries have become even more popular and India is no different.

In this article, we will explain how to play the online lottery in India, cover what you can win, and provide you with an extensive list of the best lottery websites in the country.

List of Lottery Sites
Online Casino India
Vladimir Kovačević
Vladimir Kovačević

Content Editor at AllCasinos.in

Expertise

Online Casinos, Casino Games, Casino Software, Casino Bonuses, Sports Betting, Online Gambling Regulation

Last Updated

List of the Best Indian Lottery Sites


What Is Online Lottery?

An online lottery is pretty much the same as a regular lottery, but instead of having to go out and purchase your lottery ticket in person, you can do all of that online.

Not only that, but online lottery sites have a great selection of different lotteries, not just Indian lotteries, but also those from other countries.

In addition to being able to purchase the tickets online, you can also follow the results and drawings on lottery websites in India as well.

Online Lottery India

Is Online Lottery Legal in India?

Since lotteries are based on luck and are considered to be gambling, for a long time they fell under the Public Gambling Act of 1867, which prohibits any form of gambling in India to this day.

However, in 1988, India passed the Lotteries Regulation Act. This amendment to the existing law allowed Indian states to decide whether they wanted to legalise lotteries or not and it even gave them the opportunity to organise lotteries themselves.

Furthermore, as online gambling became a thing and online lotteries appeared, the law prohibiting gambling in India was circumvented by the fact that many online lottery websites are run by companies founded and based in other countries.

That fact creates a loophole in the law that doesn’t mention online casinos, sports betting sites, and lottery sites, so they all can operate in India without any issues, as long as they are based abroad. So, the legality of online gambling sites in India remains a grey area.

Indian State Lotteries

As we mentioned above, Indian states can decide whether they want to legalise lotteries or not, including online lotteries.

At the moment, 13 states have decided to take this option and make the lottery legal, while 15 states and 8 union territories still deem the lottery illegal.

These are the 13 Indian states where the lottery is legal right now:

  • Assam
  • Arunachal Pradesh
  • West Bengal
  • Meghalaya
  • Nagaland
  • Mizoram
  • Kerala
  • Goa
  • Maharashtra
  • Manipur
  • Madhya Pradesh
  • Punjab
  • Sikkim

Each of these states has its own Lottery Department that is supposed to regulate lotteries and look after their functioning. Dates and times of lotteries are also organised by these departments run by the state government.

Types of Online Lottery

While the most common type of lottery or at least the way of playing the lottery is with the standard, individual lottery tickets, there are two more ways to buy tickets and play the lottery online.

These two types of online lottery are syndicate and bundle lotteries, so let’s take a closer look at them right now.

Syndicate Lottery

This is a type of lottery that allows a group of players like family or friends to buy lottery tickets through a joint account. This way, if you hit the jackpot, the prize money is divided between the individuals that are a part of the syndicate, in proportion to each individual’s contributions.

Some syndicates can have between 50 to 70 members, which can drastically increase the odds of winning the jackpot.

Bundle Lottery

The bundle is a type of lottery that is even more complex than the syndicate. In fact, to put it in the simplest terms, a lottery bundle is made of multiple lottery syndicates.

The difference here is that you can also play individual tickets, so, a bundle lottery is a type of lottery that combines personal bets and syndicate shares.

Online Lottery Tickets

Buying online lottery tickets is usually a very simple procedure and given that you’re buying the tickets from the comfort of your home, it’s very convenient as well.

So, let’s take a better look at the prices of online lottery tickets and how you can buy lottery tickets online.

How to Buy Lottery Tickets Online

Before you can buy lottery tickets online, you first have to choose a website where you want to play and create an account on it. We’ve provided you with a few reliable options for India already, so check them out first.

Once you have an account, you need to make a deposit using one of the available payment options and then, once you have money in the account, you can proceed to buying the tickets.

To do so, first select the lottery type and then choose the numbers you want to include in your ticket or you can choose to get the numbers automatically. Then, all you have to do is click on the purchase button to buy your lottery ticket and wait for the draw to take place.

Lottery Ticket Prices

When choosing a lottery game to play online, the price of the tickets is one of the key factors to consider. That being said, the prices can vary a lot depending on the type of lottery game. For example, some of the Indian online lottery games will have cheaper prices than Powerball, one of the US lotteries.

In a nutshell, the price of lottery tickets is usually correlated with the size of the jackpot. Some jackpots for Indian online lotteries can be around ₹10 crore for example, while international jackpots can reach hundreds of crores or even more than a thousand crore rupees.

In addition to this, the price will also depend on the type of ticket purchased — whether it is a single entry, multiple entries, syndicate, or bundle.

All things considered, most lottery tickets will cost between 80 and 400 rupees, but there are lottery tickets that will fall on either side of this range as well. For example, some weekly lotteries can have individual ticket prices of just ₹2, but the prizes are also much smaller.

How to Play Online Lottery

Lotteries online come with simple gameplay and while they can be different in some senses, the basic rules and mechanics are pretty much the same.

The lottery is a chance game where you buy a ticket with certain numbers and wait for a draw. If your numbers are drawn, you can win prizes, including the main jackpot, which can sometimes be a life-changing sum of money.

For the physical lottery, you are often provided with the numbers when you buy your tickets, while online lotteries allow you to choose your numbers. Different online lottery tickets belong to different prize tiers, depending mostly on the size of the jackpot.

In addition to the main draw where you’re in play for the jackpot, some online lotteries also have supplementary games or bonus features in which you can win smaller prizes. Keep in mind that these smaller prizes can also be substantial.

How to Win Lottery Online

Lottery games online are based purely on chance, so there is no way to increase your chances of winning the lottery for sure — it is pure luck and the numbers drawn are completely random.

That being said, some people like to use different strategies to choose their lottery numbers. For example, you can choose frequently drawn numbers or use random number generators.

However, that doesn’t really affect your chances of winning the lottery, but it can make the process of choosing the numbers quicker and simpler.

Lottery Apps

Given that many people use mobile phones and devices to do things on the Internet these days, mobile lottery apps can be very important. While it’s rare to find lotteries that have their own apps, you can find lottery websites with dedicated mobile apps.

The advantages of using lottery apps are many, including easy access to ticket purchases, notifications of results, and special app-exclusive promotions or features. They are also usually available on pretty much any mobile phone brand and operating system, such as Android and iOS.

So, if you’re interested in using a lottery app, you need to check whether the lottery site you plan to join has a mobile app or not. Some of them only have a mobile version of the website that you can access on your mobile device’s browser, while others have an app that you can download and install.

Online Lottery Games

The range of online lottery games that you can find on most Indian websites is pretty diverse and extensive, so we won’t be able to list all lottery games here.

That being said, lottery games can be Indian lottery games like Cricket Lotto or Jeeto Lotto, or international lottery games like Powerball, Mega Millions, EuroMillions, and others.

Of course, there are also the government or the state-run lotteries, at least in those states where the lottery is legalised, which we mentioned before. However, these aren’t available online yet in most cases.

Online Lottery Payment Methods

Online lottery sites in India usually offer a wide variety of payment methods that you can use to purchase lottery tickets. That being said, these are some of the most popular payment options commonly found at Indian lottery websites:

  • Credit/Debit Cards — Probably the most common payment method in India that includes different types of cards, such as Mastercard, Visa, American Express, and RuPay
  • E-wallets — Often uses for being faster than credit and debit cards, common options for e-wallets include Neteller, Skrill, PhonePe, Paytm, and Google Pay.
  • Bank Transfer — This is another common payment option at online lottery sites, often integrated with the largest banks in India, like Bank of India, Canara Bank, and Punjab National Bank.
  • Cryptocurrencies — Some lottery sites also allow crypto payment options and accept different currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, TRON, and others.
  • Other Options — There are also many other options like mobile payments, pre-paid cards, and similar. This includes some very popular payment methods like UPI, Paysafecard, Zimpler, Payz, and others.

Free Online Lottery in India

While there are no lotteries that offer participation for free, at least not those with hefty prizes and jackpots, there are ways to play online lottery in India for free and that’s using bonuses and promotions.

Most online lottery sites offer welcome bonuses, deposit bonuses, and many other promotions, so make sure that you use them to play the online lottery without risking your own money.

How We Rated Online Lotteries in India

Since there are more than a few different options when it comes to online lottery websites in India, we have developed our own rating system for them and we tried to make it as comprehensive as possible so we can cover many important things.

This rating system has multiple criteria and we look at them all objectively and provide you with a rating for each criterion individually, as well as for the online lottery website overall.

Here are the criteria that we focus on when rating online lottery sites in India:

Overall Reputation

The first thing that we look at is the overall reputation of the website. After all, online lottery sites with good reputations are the ones that you need to look for since they are reliable and safe.

In any case, we take a look at different things to provide our rating for this criterion, including a look at the website owners, how long has the site been operating, complaints history, appearance on blacklists, and others.

Payment Methods

We mentioned some of the most common payment methods available at online lottery sites in India and based on that, we provide our rating for this criterion.

That means that we look at the number and diversity of payment methods available on the website. We also focus on payment methods that are popular in India and we look at both payment options for deposits and withdrawals.

Lottery Games

The variety and total number of casino games is what we look at to decide on the rating for the next criterion and some would say that this is the most important one. While we might agree to some extent, we make sure to look at each criterion on its own and provide a rating for each of them individually.

In any case, we look at how many games there are to choose from, whether there are both Indian and international lotteries available, whether there are weekly lotteries and bumper draw lotteries (draw once a year with a huge jackpot), etc.

Pricing

Another thing we take into consideration and rate is pricing. After all, lottery tickets don’t have the same prices at different websites and those that have more affordable tickets will have the advantage here.

In addition to this, we also look at the overall ticket prices for different types of lotteries, as well as the value for money provided by the lottery site in question.

Tickets

When we rate online lottery sites in India based on this criterion, we consider a few different things, such as the availability of tickets, flexibility when it comes to different ticket options, and how easy it is to buy tickets on the site.

Some online lottery sites have more complicated processes for buying tickets than others and that hurts their rating since ease of use is one of the most important things to focus on.

Promotions

Many players first look at the available promotions and bonuses when choosing an online lottery website to join and we can’t say we don’t agree with this strategy.

After all, a good number and variety of promotions, including welcome bonuses, can help players a lot and save them a lot of money in some instances. So, we make sure to take a close look at the promotions and bonuses available on the website that we rate, which includes the total number of promotions, but also the terms and conditions for each of them.

Mobile Optimisation

With mobile users becoming the majority of players when it comes to online lotteries, we focus on mobile optimisation when we rate online lottery sites in India. However, we also look at desktop and tablet optimisation.

In any case, we look at whether the website is optimised for all devices, but we also check whether they have dedicated apps for mobile devices, which is a huge plus.

Site Experience

The first thing you will notice at any online lottery site is the website design, so we also check that when we rate them.

We make sure that the website looks good, has simple and intuitive on-site navigation, and that the overall user experience is positive, including different features and functionalities that can affect players during their stay on the site.

Customer Support

The final criterion on which we rate online lottery sites in India is customer support, which includes a variety of customer support options (phone, email, live chat, social media), availability (specific working hours or 24/7), and average response time.

We also check in which languages is customer support available, with a particular focus on the Hindu language. After all, we are rating online lottery websites in India, so having customer support in Hindu is very important.

Key Takeaways

  • Online lotteries allow you to purchase lottery tickets through the Internet, offering a convenient way to participate in various lotteries, both Indian and international.
  • While the legality of online lotteries in India is a grey area, some states have legalized lotteries, and many online lottery websites are operated by companies based in other countries to bypass regulations.
  • Online lottery ticket prices vary widely depending on the game and jackpot size, typically ranging from 80 to 400 rupees.
  • Players can enhance their experience by using lottery apps, which provide convenient access to ticket purchases, results, and special promotions.
  • To rate lottery websites in India, we use a range of factors, including overall reputation, payment methods, lottery games, pricing, ticket availability, promotions, mobile optimization, site experience, and customer support.

Play Online Lottery at Top Online Indian Casinos

We hope that we were able to provide you with the most important information regarding Indian lottery and that you are pleased with our rating system for online lottery sites and casinos that offer lottery in the country.

So, if you want to check some of them out for yourself and play different lottery games online, take a closer look at our list of the best online lottery websites in India.

Frequently Asked Questions

To buy lottery tickets online, you have to be registered at one of the lottery websites. Once you have an account and funds in the account, you can buy lottery tickets quickly and easily.

 

Lottery results will be displayed on the website once the draw is made, while some lottery sites might even show the draw live for you to follow as it happens.

The best way to make sure that you’re playing the lottery at a genuine site where you will be treated fairly is to check our ratings for lottery sites in India and choose one of the sites from our list of top lottery websites in the country.

It is hard to answer this question since there are many parameters to consider — ticket price, jackpot size, how often is the draw made, whether you can buy syndicate or bundle tickets, etc. So, the answer to this question is mostly subjective.

No, government lotteries in India aren’t available online at the moment.

Vladimir Kovačević
Vladimir Kovačević LinkedIn

Vladimir is our content editor with years of experience in the online casino and sports betting industry, which includes writing for websites like Football Whispers, Pundit Feed, and Football Ground Guide, among others. In addition to professional experience in this industry, Vladimir also has a personal relationship with sports betting and online gambling, which helps him dig deeper to provide useful, accurate, and relevant information about casino sites in India.