Illinois State Lottery Goes Mobile
Residents in the Land of Lincoln can now play the state lottery in a wholly different way than ever before.
The Illinois Lottery has just introduced a brand new mobile app from which residents of the nation’s fifth-largest state can take their chances at becoming a little – or a lot – richer.
Land of Lincoln came early to online lottery
Illinois made history when its lottery became the first in the United States to allow citizens to log onto a web site to purchase tickets when it launched Internet-based ticket sales two years ago in 2012.
Upon noticing that nearly half of those coming to the Illinois Lottery web site were doing so via a mobile phone or other mobile device such as a tablet, it was decided that a mobile app should be developed.
About 44 percent of those accessing the state’s lottery home page are doing so using a mobile device.
The Illinois Lottery app is compatible with iOS (Apple iPhone and iPad) as well as with Android-based devices.
Customers can not only buy tickets to such games as Powerball, Lotto, and Mega Millions using the app, but can also utilize it to discover which stores close to them are selling physical lottery tickets.
State is on the short list for online gambling regulation
Illinois is often on the lips of those positing which states might follow the lead of Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware in regulating some form of Internet-based betting.
Last year, a bill that would have put five new land-based casinos in the state, including one in downtown Chicago, the third most populous city in the United States, contained a component that would have carved out permissions for online wagering.
That clause, however, was stripped out of the legislation as a means of making the bill more appealing to historically anti-gambling Illinois Governor Pat Quinn. The measure, known as Senate Bill 1739, then flopped in the state capitol of Springfield before ever coming to a vote during last spring’s legislative term.
Sponsors of the casino expansion legislation have said they have plans to bring back the bill this year, however it remains unknown whether or not online poker or real money online casino games would have a place in any future bill.
Meanwhile, Democratic Governor Quinn, who faces re-election this year, will still have to grapple with the state’s fiscal woes for the remainder of his tenure and well into his new term, should he be granted one.
Illinois remains one of the most cash-strapped states in the United States, and although Quinn has twice in the past vetoed legislation that calls for additional land-based casino properties in the Land of Lincoln, many point to casino expansion as a route to financial solvency for the midwest’s largest state.
Whether or not the introduction first of web-based lottery ticket sales and now the new mobile app portend a future that includes legalized, regulated online gambling in Illinois remains to be seen, but rest assured that we will continue to closely monitor any developments in this story.
