Venture Beat – There used to be a time when typing the word “lottery” into the App Store on iTunes returned strictly gaming apps, like “Slots Elvis Zombies in Vegas” or “Scratchers Free Instant Scratch-Off Lucky Lottery Tickets,” ones that are lottery related, but more than anything are games at their heart of hearts – systematic stuff that may feature gambling terms in the title, but the only monies that they receive are for in-app purchases that don’t return real lottery tickets to buyers.
Well, that day has changed.
As reported recently by The Chicago Tribune, Illinois is now the first state ever to have a lottery gaming app that actually lets those who are geo-targeted as being within the state lines purchase tickets – capping them off with a $3,500 monthly limit to try and mitigate the push back from anti-gambling associations who don’t like the ease of play the new app provides gambling addicts who don’t need to leave their homes to get in the games.
Now that the Illinois app has been downloaded more than 128,000 times and has sold nearly $1 million in ticket sales, expect more states to follow suit, effectively knocking more and more gaming apps like “Jackpot Slots – Slot Machines” down to their rightful places in the iTunes store in order to make room for official lottery state apps, like those from California or Ohio, even if those state apps don’t yet allow users to actually purchase tickets via the apps.
Will gambling gaming app makers follow the real lottery app lead?
