New York has a state lottery which was established in 1966. There are a variety of games New York residents can play, these include multi-jurisdictional games and local state games. Some of the biggest games are available in New York, Mega Millions and Powerball. They also offer Cash4Life, only a few states offer this game and the top prizes are $1,000 a day for the rest of your life and second prize is $1,000 a week for the rest of your life.

Jessica Whitehouse, Editor at online-gambling.com

• Twitter
• Email

Jessica Whitehouse is among the professional online-gambling.com editors in charge of ensuring that our readers get the best and most reliable news and details from the online gambling world. Her focus is on blackjack and roulette reviews, lottery, and more.

More About Jessica Whitehouse

Are There Legal Online Lotteries Available in New York?

There is currently a state lottery in New York, it came into place in 1996, in 2014 the state introduced some of the country’s most popular games: Powerball and Mega Millions. Since the introduction of the lottery there have been nearly $10 billion in gross sales, over $3 billion in beneficiary funds and nearly $5 billion awarded to players. The lottery is extremely popular.

New York does not have its own online lottery yet. While there is no online lottery, residents and non-residents can purchase tickets via a third party platforms like Jackpot.com and Jackpocket, that essentially ask someone to go to a retailer and purchase tickets on your behalf. The tickets are then scanned and saved into your account where you can then claim the prizes if the tickets win. There is some debate over whether this is legal and falls under online gambling but currently this is a solid way to play online. The state of New York has a popular lottery and residents are able to purchase tickets from over 16,000 retailers across the state.

Cash4Life

Cash4Life is an amazing lottery quite popular across te US. The availability of this lottery is limited to nine states only. However, New York lotto players can purchase tickets from anywhere across the state where does are listed for sale. Cash4Life has been going strong since 2014 when the very first tickets were sold in New Jersey and New York. Two dollars is all you need to buy a ticket, and players have to pick 5 white ball numbers and one green ‘cash ball’ number.

Mega Millions

No list would be complete without adding Mega Millions – one of the most famous and easily accessible lotteries in the US! The lottery is available across 44 states, including Washington D.C. and the US Virgin Islands. When it comes to pricing, this lottery offers tickets for the small price of $2. Make sure to choose 5 balls out of 70 available and one MegaBall out of 25 total options. In 2018 a lucky player one the second-largest jackpot in America by winning the Megaball jackpot of over $1.537 billion!

Powerball

Available across 21 states including Puerto Rico, Washington D.C and the US Virgin Islands, Powerball is truly preferred among lotto players, especially with the $2 dollar ticket prices it offers. Once you choose 5 numbers out of 69 available, you also have to pick one lucky Powerball number out of 26 available. Draws are held every Wednesday and Saturday in Florida and can start from $40 million. However, three lucky winners shocked the world in 2016 when they shared a prize pool of over $1.5 billion dollars!

Lottery Regulator in New York

The lottery in New York is regulated by the New York Gaming Commission. They are also in charge of other gaming concerns in the state. They are responsible for all legal gaming in the state and ensure that gambling is promoted responsibly.

History of New York Lottery

New York introduced the lottery in 1966 and saw the first game take place in 1967. It was the second state in the United States to implement a state lottery. In the first year sales reached $53.6 million. The computerized lottery age started in 1980 with the introduction of the daily Numbers game. The lottery in New York has had the highest sales values since 1996, this has been helped due to video lottery terminals. The lottery is seen as an entertainment business and aims to help the education for the state.

Below is a breakdown of the history of the lottery in the state of New York.

Famous Winners –Robert Bailey – Powerball of Manhattan

Robert Bailey of Manhattan claimed a win on the Powerball of $687.8 million. He matched all six numbers and claimed the fourth biggest win in US history. “I just ran into the store and played my numbers, ran back into the car and was off”. He claims a family member gave him the numbers twenty-five years ago and he continues to play them. He opted for the cash sum rather than the annuity option. His plans were to buy his mother a house and take a holiday. Unfortunately, Robert had to split the winnings with another ticket holder but who could complain with winning that sort of money!

Online Lotto Legal Age in New York

The legal age in New York is 18. However, lots of states have that same minimum age. Other like Nebraska require you to be at least 19, whereas Arizona, Iowa, Louisiana require players have to be at least 21 years old. One thing to clear out is that underage gmabling is considered as crime and if you don’t abide state laws, you might either end up in jail or pay heavy fines.

• Lottery Age
  The legal age is 18 in New York.
• Alcohol Age
  The legal drinking age is 21 in New York.
• Weed Age
  Weed is not legal in New York, there is no minimum age.

Is Online Lotto Legal When You Are Out of the State?

Online lottery in the US is legal, but not across all states. However, eight states have currently made this gambling activity legal. This is mostly due to the statement of the US DOJ that the Federal Act Wire is applicable only for sports betting. Prior to this change, the act didn’t allow interstate gambling and online lottery was considered as illegal until 2011. Fortunately, states have the power to decide whether online lotto should be made legal. States such as Virginia, New Hampshire, New York, Delaware, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Kentucky have taken care of showing lottery a green light. Same is the situation in Europe where their most famous lottery, Euromillions, is available across Spain, Austria, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Portugal, the UK, Ireland and Belgium.

The Best Lottery Mobile App

New York has no online lottery, however, the official website does have apps for both Android and iOS. These apps allow players to check results, scan their tickets into their accounts, check prize draws available, see the current jackpot amounts and a map of retailers. If this is not enough, there is an app called TheL11otter, which allows players to pay for a ticket on the app, that person then goes to the shop and purchases a ticket on their behalf and scans it into their lottery account.

Online Lottery Promotions to Take Advantage Of

When it comes to online lottery promotions, it’s always to keep your eyes on the prize and make sure your information about those is up-to-date. For the time being, there are no online lotto promotions but they may come in different variants. Some of them might be two tickets on the price of one, a matching bonus on your earnings, or even bonus points. Whatever the case may be, be aware of those and it’s also a good idea to check the avialable bonuses at other states as well!

Taxes on Lotto Winnings in New York

New York taxes are enforced on winnings on lottery games. There is a $5,000 threshold which means you will need to pay 24 percent federal tax plus 8.82 percent New York State tax. If you live in New York City an additional 3.876 percent is taken and if you live in Yonkers there is an additional 1.477 percent. For non-residents a tax of 30 percent is taken. New York has the highest lottery taxes in the country.

Upcoming Regulation Changes for Online Lottery

There are no plans at present to introduce an online lottery in New York. The sales figures from the standard retailer tickets shows that there is a huge appetite for lottery in the state. With third party sites like Jackpocket coming into play a change could be coming. It depends on how popular services like that become, it may just start a sway towards it. In the meantime, it seems that New York is more than happy to walk to the shop and purchase a physical ticket. Be sure to check back for any changes that occur in the regulations to a New York lottery.

Lottery Guides for Nearby States

• New Jersey
• Pennsylvania
• Connecticut
• Massachusetts