TheLotter Review: 15 Things You Should Know (2024)

What is theLotter?

TheLotter is a website and app that lets you play more than 50 different lotteries around the world.

The company started in 2002 and report they have since paid out more than $100 million in prizes to over 5 million winners worldwide.

You can sign up for theLotter and play their offered lotteries from most countries in the world (see exceptions below).

Here’s how it stacks up in our list of the best online lottery sites…

How does theLotter work?

Here’s an official video from theLotter explaining how their service works:

In brief:

• Sign up to theLotter for free.
• Choose to play one of the 50+ lotteries from around the world.
• Pick your lotto numbers and pay for your ticket.
• An agent from theLotter will then go buy a real ticket using your numbers and send you a scan of the ticket as proof.
• If your ticket is a winner, theLotter notifies you after the draw and helps you claim the prize. If you win a big jackpot, they may need to fly you to the lottery country to collect your winnings.

How much money can I win?

First of all, you’re unlikely to win any money playing the lottery. (If your goal is to make money online, here are some better options.)

However, theLotter seems to produce regular lottery winners, with a reported $100+ million in prizes paid out to more than 5 million players since 2002.

Most of those players would have won less than $1000 each, but there have also been some big success stories from theLotter…

🏆 TheLotter Winners

You’ll find at least nine players listed on theLotter website who have won $1 million or more.

We verified and profiled two of them:

Aura above won the Florida Lotto via theLotter, while the Iraqi gentleman matched all six winning numbers in the Oregon Megabucks.

Is theLotter legit or a scam?

While you will find some complaints about theLotter (see below), my research reveals it to be one of the most reputable and trusted ways to play the lottery online.

As of this writing, it has received almost 2000 reviews on Trustpilot and maintains an overall “great” rating…

TheLotter is owned and operated by a company called Lotto Direct Limited, which is licensed and regulated by the Malta Gaming Authority. (You can verify this for yourself on the MGA website.)

The MGA is an officially appointed body of Malta’s government. This means the government of Malta keeps a watchful eye on theLotter to make sure all their operations are legal and above board.

While preparing this review, I personally signed up for an account at theLotter and bought a ticket for the EuroJackpot lottery.

Within two hours, they had bought and scanned my ticket:

Unfortunately, my ticket didn’t prove to be a winner, but I was pleased with the speed and legitimacy of the service 👍

So is theLotter safe?

Having bought a ticket via theLotter myself (see above) and researched the company extensively, I am convinced that theLotter is a safe and secure way to play the lottery online.

For six primary reasons:

• TheLotter is licensed and regulated by the Malta Gaming Authority.
• TheLotter website uses Geotrust 128 bit SSL encryption to protect your transactions.
• McAfee WebAdvisor confirms that theLotter website is safe:

• TheLotter sends you a scan of your tickets after buying them on your behalf.
• TheLotter has been in operation since 2002 and the vast majority of user reviews are positive.
• Trusted media publications like The New York Times have confirmed that players have won millions via theLotter.

What lotteries can I play?

You can play 50+ lotteries from around the world via theLotter.

The most popular include:

USA Mega Millions

• Jackpot usually more than $100 million
• The biggest jackpot ever won was $1.537 billion in 2018

USA Powerball

• Jackpot is usually more than $30 million.
• The biggest jackpot ever won was $1.586 billion in 2016.

Italy SuperEnalotto

• Jackpot is usually more than €40 million.
• The biggest jackpot ever won was €209 million in 2019.

EuroJackpot

• Jackpot is usually more than €20 million.
• The biggest jackpot ever won was €90 million. It has been won several times.

EuroMillions

• Jackpot is usually more than €40 million.
• The biggest jackpot ever won was €190 million. It has been won several times.

(Source for above info: Wikipedia)

Does theLotter work in my country?

TheLotter say you can use their site to play lotteries no matter what country you live in…

However, I jumped on theLotter’s chat support and was told by an agent that they cannot currently operate in the following countries:

If you’re anywhere else, you should be fine.

I’ve seen theLotter producing winners from countries such as:

If in doubt about whether you can play from your country, contact theLotter’s support team here.

🇦🇺 Can you play theLotter in Australia?

According to the agent from theLotter who I chatted with, you can’t currently use the site from Australia.

Sorry!

That said, theLotter has a whole page dedicated to Australian lotteries, and they list at least 4 previous winners from Australia on their lottery winners page.

Fees and Commissions

You must pay a fee to play a lottery via theLotter. Compared to buying a single ticket direct from a store yourself, I calculated that buying it from theLotter will cost you approximately 143% more.

That fee is about average compared to other online lottery sites…

Price of Tickets for 5 Popular Lotteries

Keep in mind that when you buy a ticket via theLotter, you’re paying for two things:

• The ticket itself.
• Someone at theLotter to go to a store, buy the ticket on your behalf, then scan it into your account.

That’s why it’s more expensive to buy a ticket via theLotter than it would be for you to go into a store and buy it yourself.

Of course, tickets for some lotteries can only be bought in specific countries. But theLotter has offices in more than 20 countries, so they can legally buy tickets for you.

It’s important to note that theLotter does not charge you any fee or commission beyond this initial fee.

So even if you win a $30 million jackpot via theLotter, you won’t have to pay them anything extra.

Here’s the official word:

• See how theLotter’s fees compare to other online lottery sites

TheLotter Discounts and Bonuses

TheLotter offers several ways to play at a discounted rate…

💲 Multi-Draw and Subscription

You will see offers like this when buying your ticket for many lotteries offered by theLotter…

As you can see, if you’re a frequent lottery player, you can get up to a 25% discount using the Multi-Draw option, or every 10th ticket free with a Subscription.

More info:

• Subscriptions
• Multi-Draws

🥳 Lottery Promotions and Special Offers

Visit the Lottery Promotions page at theLotter and you’ll see discounts like these…

🤝 Syndicates

A syndicate is a group buy, where you team up with other lottery players, buy a load of tickets together, then split any winnings.

TheLotter explains:

Joining a lottery syndicate will give you improved odds of winning lottery prizes while costing you less money. A syndicate allows you to play hundreds of different number combinations without having to buy multiple lottery tickets yourself. As part of a syndicate you have a chance to win multiple times in each draw and you will be able to share the excitement of winning with fellow lottery players.

You don’t need to recruit other players to form a syndicate. TheLotter already has syndicates set up for each major lottery and you can choose to join.

There are four types of syndicates available at theLotter:

• Random Selection
• Systematic
• Guaranteed Number Matc
• Additional Numbers Match Guaranteed

See this page for more info about each.

Bundles

Here’s how theLotter describes bundles:

Bundles are lottery packages which combine a Personal Entry Ticket with Syndicate shares, giving you an increased chance of winning prizes with group play while also letting you play your own personal numbers.

Playing Bundles give you the best of both worlds: a customizable Personal Entry ticket combined with the odds-boosting power of group play (Syndicate play).

Bundles can save you money while increasing your odds of winning.

🏆 TheLotter VIP Club

All members of theLotter earn points when they fund their account balance for lottery ticket purchases.

Every $1 you add to your account earns you 1 point for the VIP Club.

Rack up enough points, and you unlock some nice discounts…

• More info about theLotter’s VIP Club

Payments and Withdrawals

Here’s another place where theLotter really shines: they offer a ton of deposit and withdrawal methods.

As of this writing, they offer 18 ways to pay for your lottery tickets (eg. Visa, MasterCard, Skrill), and 6 ways to withdraw your winnings (eg. Bank transfer, Visa, Skrill).

• Full list of theLotter’s deposit and withdrawal methods

Furthermore, theLotter supports several currencies, as detailed on this page.

TheLotter Sign Up

Signing up to theLotter is simple.

Go to the website or app and you’ll see a sign-up form like this:

You can sign up with your email or use your Facebook account.

After that you’ll be asked for your name, birthday, full address, and phone number. TheLotter requires this information for legal reasons, and it’s quite safe to provide it since they are a legit company and their website is secure.

Note that by default some of your information will be displayed publicly on theLotter if you win, but you can opt out of this.

Via thelotter.com:

If you win a lottery prize on tickets purchased at theLotter, non-identifying information (first name, first letter of your last name, and country of residence) will be automatically published in the Winners section on the homepage of our site. If you wish to cancel this display, please contact customer service. If you win a lottery jackpot, the requirements of the official lottery organisation apply.

Note that you may be asked for additional information to verify your identity if you win a substantial amount via theLotter. This is to ensure that your winnings do not go to someone else by mistake.

TheLotter Apps

I personally signed up for theLotter and bought a ticket via their website, but you can also use the service via one of their mobile apps.

🍏 TheLotter iPhone App

You can download this free app from the Apple App Store using your iPhone.

The app was first released in 2007 but has very few ratings and mediocre reviews, so I wouldn’t recommend using theLotter this way. Personally, I prefer to use the website.

📱 TheLotter Android App

This one is strange because it’s not on the official Google Play store.

Instead, you have to download it from theLotter’s website and install it manually on your Android device.

Here’s a video from theLotter showing you how to get the Android app:

I don’t know why the app isn’t available through the official Google Play store, but it’s a bit of a red flag that it’s not.

I recommend using theLotter via thelotter.com instead. You can do this via the browser on your Android device.

TheLotter Complaints

The vast majority of reviews I’ve seen for theLotter are positive.

However, here are some common complaints I’ve seen about the company:

• High Fees
  Buying a ticket via theLotter is much more expensive than going into a store and buying a ticket yourself. But this is true for all online lottery sites. Per our research, theLotter’s fees are fairly standard compared to similar sites.
• Not possible to buy a single ticket
  At minimum you are required to play three lines, which means you have to buy at least three lottery tickets every time.
• Recurring payments
  I’ve seen a couple of reports of players being charged multiple times by theLotter without their knowledge. This seems to happen when a player accidentally signs up for a subscription. To ensure this doesn’t happen to you, go to My Account after you play and you’ll see there if you have any active subscriptions.

I don’t consider any of these complaints to be a deal-breaker for theLotter.

Overall it’s a solid service.

Is theLotter worth it?

Using sites like theLotter isn’t the best idea if your goal is to earn a living online. (There are much better options for that.)

But playing online lottery can be fun if you use the right sites and don’t get carried away.

Pros and Cons

Overall, I find theLotter to be one of the best online lottery sites, and I happily recommend it to friends and family.

Gambling problem? See our guide about how to stop gambling.

TheLotter Alternatives

I’m on a mission to review all the best online lottery sites.

Here’s my progress so far:

• More online gambling options