Coronavirus and lottery: How mobile devices and smartphones changed the way to play lottery

It has been estimated that the online betting and gambling global market generates an annual revenue pairs to more than 50 billion dollars. By the end of 2025, it should have reached the exorbitant amount of 85 billion. Such a big turnover, with a huge profit margin for betting companies, has led to a massive spread of illegal betting hubs, with no warranties for the bettors and the idea that going online to place bets was a comfortable but at the same time dangerous choice, able to raise people’s addiction and cause remarkable losses of money.

Fortunately, things are gradually changing, thanks to the most renowned betting companies' sense of responsibility as well as the increasingly strict rules set by the government agencies almost all over the world. Another big change has been introduced by the creation of a new generation of betting websites: the online lottery providers like online lottery providers like “The Lotter”.

These sites are basically online lottery collectors from across the world, which give bettors the possibility to play over different platforms. Initially, this form of betting-based entertainment was considered a niche within the remarkably wider gambling galaxy. But things are rapidly evolving, thanks mainly to a couple of factors.

The first one is the wide spread of smartphones and/or similar devices. This has made the access to online games so easy and immediate that everyone can explore the lottery galaxy at any time and from every place. Once this quality would have been a cause of concern, since it could lead to a gambling addiction; but now, as we said before, the most reliable online betting, gambling, playing and lottery websites have set up a series of tools able to activate limits and restrictions, avoiding the occurrence of any vicious and/or compulsive habit. In brief, they have managed to combine attractiveness and safety, in order to create a sane virtual environment where betting and gambling can be experienced just as an amusement, with no further implications.

The second, and probably decisive, factor is represented by the Covid-19 virus spread throughout the year 2020. In many countries betting halls have been shut down, just like other unessential facilities. So, players and bettors had to find an alternative solution, able to keep them safe and, at the same time, replicate the adrenaline and the sense of excitement of a live betting place. In the middle of their search, they had the chance to discover (or rediscover) the world of lotteries, also thanks to the partial lack of betting options. In fact, during the most acute phase of the pandemic, many sport competitions (the most fascinating betting objects) have been suspended or even cancelled, creating a sort of vacuum inside the betting galaxy. A vacuum that has been filled, in a high percentage, by lotteries. Actually, this peculiar form of betting has the advantage of being detached from a live performance: it exists by itself, and has a similar coefficient of uncertainty, compared to the “traditional” betting forms.

The question is: will this trend persist once the pandemic is eradicated? No one is able to predict the future, but it seems that a new way to relate with the betting universe has taken root, and it is destined to last for a very long time.