Winning the Online Lottery by Doug

There are 3.5 Billion users connected to the internet throughout the world and they all want to become rich. Winning a lottery beats working for a living and lottery advertisements are seen in every country with billboards, magazines and television. Once a lottery ticket has been purchased it is just a matter of time before a second, third and fourth ticket is bought by the same person.

The internet is allowing people in every corner of the world to know when a lottery prize has reached US$1 Billion ( US$1.586 Billion Powerball on Jan. 13, 2016 and US$1.537 Billion MegaMillions on Oct 23, 2018 ). The size of the lottery prize generates greater interest in lotteries and television news show long lineups at retail lottery terminals.

The largest United States lotteries are moving slowly toward online ticket purchases as greater interest attracts online hackers and if a hacker can modify a political election, imagine the interest in a Trillion Dollar Lottery Jackpot. On a busy day lottery terminals generate a great deal of heat when forced to run for eight hours straight. Online data farms are adding server blades in anticipation of the introduction of large-scale online lotteries hitting the internet.

Purchasing a lottery ticket online will drive up the ticket prize and allow anyone with a computer, tablet or phone to start saying "OK Google" ( or Hi Siri ) "Buy me a ticket on the Powerball" and the transaction will take place in a heartbeat. Lottery ticket payment methods will begin allowing Mobile Wallets like GooglePay, ApplePay, PayPal, AliPay and payment authorizer will encourage users to keep a credit balance on their account so payments can be delivered without requesting verification. The speed of life as we know it will change.

Lottery Ticket Security

As lottery ticket purchases speed up, security needs to be seamless. The number of transaction per second will be pressed as many purchases are made at the last minute by buyer delays. If buying one ticket is good, ten tickets is better, then 200 tickets are much better for the person with unlimited funds. Each ticket purchase must be electronically made, verified as paid, recorded and printed ( if a retail terminal is used ) and digitally recorded and stored if auto-paid by non-cash online methods. Tickets need to be secure as there are no cameras watching the purchase as in a casino or retail lottery terminal. An audit trail of the purchase is necessary especially if the ticket is a winner.

Is Your Credit Card at Risk?

Paying with a credit card is as secure as the credit card security, but many online websites take turns being hacked. Third party payment wallets such as GooglePay, ApplePay, PayPal, AliPay would appear to place a buffer between your bank account, your bank account credit card, GooglePay and the service that accepts GooglePay. No amount of teeth gnashing will help you when you purchase a winning lottery ticket and then learn the lottery website was hacked by a foreign geek who cashed in your ticket before you. Your risk is the same whether you bought your ticket from a terminal kiosk, a human in a retail store or online.

Technology Helps Security

Your lottery purchase may use expanding technology to ensure it is you. Samsung "Force-Touch" announcement, fingerprint scanning or iris scanning may play a part in future lottery ticket purchases. Current low ticket price does not warrant expensive safeguards of each transaction, but as lottery prizes reach higher valuation, protection of computer technology that selects the winner will become critical.

If Texan TommyTipton can slip a program called QVRNG.dll: Quantum Vision Random Number Generator into the Multi-State Lottery Association software, then any foreign hacker could win a Powerball or MegaMillions drawing.

Player Beware

Creating a Lottery Website is simple. Many of the "Buy Lottery Tickets from Around the World Websites" create "FEEDER" websites that recommend their own website and even create their own competition, but when you press PLAY, it takes you to their authorization and credit card collection location. These websites Feed You to their own testimonials and it all seems so legitimate. Player Beware

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