There are several advantages to buying official lottery tickets online. The first of which is convenience. Most state lotteries offer the option of purchasing a ticket in advance for certain number of draws. For example, you can subscribe to Powerball draws for a specified number of weeks. This means you don’t have to drive to a retail store every week to purchase a lottery ticket.
Another major benefit of playing an official lottery is the opportunity to support education in your state. The North Carolina lottery, for example, is called the North Carolina Education Lottery and proceeds go to public schools. Since 2005, the lottery has given away $5.5 billion to educational causes. The state lottery offers three in-house draw games, as well as multi-state games. The lottery is broadcast live on six television stations in North Carolina.
The first recorded money lottery games were held in the Low Countries during the 15th century. Various towns held public lotteries to raise money for town fortifications or to help the poor. The first recorded lotteries, which may have been as old as 1445, are listed in the town records of Ghent. In a record dated 9 May 1445, L’Ecluse mentioned a lottery involving 4304 tickets, which was worth 1737 florins. This is the equivalent of approximately $170,000 today.
The official lottery form must be filled out by each player claiming the prize. It may be available online where the lottery has the authority. Another option is to sign up for a sweepstakes account, which allows the lottery to debit or credit your retailer’s account. Sweepstakes, on the other hand, are games that award prizes without the player buying any tickets.