New app allows you to buy lottery tickets from phone

Available for free download, Jackpocket engages lotto players by allowing them to instantly buy, play, and receive winnings from state lottery tickets through their smartphones.

If you ever lamented not buying that lottery ticket, you’re in luck. This is the same procedure that applies to tickets purchased directly by consumers the old fashioned way -smaller prizes can be collected by winners at any official New York Lottery ticket sales location.

Tickets are scanned and the user can see them on their phone. It serves as a free courier, purchasing all tickets from New York State-licensed retailers.

Sullivan has been working on developing the application for more than two years, and it launched Monday. “So he’d come home and he was the coach for all of my sports which was great, but he’d have to get the Jersey numbers in before practice started or else he would miss them so we were always late to our own practices”, Sullivan said.

Lee Park, Director of Communications says, “The New York State Lottery has absolutely no affiliation or relationship with this entity”. And in case you’re anxious about buying too many tickets, there’s a $100 daily cap.

“If we can make it convenient for the people that want to play, and be responsible with monitoring their play…I think that’s a win-win”, Sullivan said.

This app, available first in New York state, comes as a time when the Powerball Jackpot is climbing to more than $300 million, but ticket sales have fallen sharply.

As of Tuesday, Jackpocket had approximately 10,000 registered users, mostly iPhone owners. On Tuesday night, 20 orders were being placed every minute.

Once a Jackpocket account is created and payment information is provided, users choose between Powerball, New York Lotto, Mega Millions, and three other New York-based lotteries.