List of Legitimate, Legal Lotteries

This is, by far, the most complete list of legal lottery names available.  This is a global list of legitimate lotteries, covering the United States (and state lotteries), the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and many other countries. While there may be a legitimate lottery out there that we haven't yet heard of (or validated), it is a safe bet that if the lottery isn't on this list, it is very likely a scam. 

Remember these tips for avoiding scam lotteries:

  1. You cannot win a legitimate lottery if you have not entered it.

  2. In almost all cases you must purchase a ticket to enter a legal lottery.

  3. You never have to pay to collect winnings from a legitimate lottery. You pay taxes AFTER you you receive the winnings.  Other fees would be simply deducted from the winnings.

  4. If you hold a real, legal winning lottery ticket, you must notify the lottery

  5. None of these lotteries will contact you to say you won; not by phone, fax, mail or email.

  6. It is illegal under U.S. federal law to play ANY foreign lottery from the United States.

  7. Since scammers simply invent new names for their fake email scam (the email is the scam, not any persons or companies named in the email)s, it is more accurate to say that if you do not see the lottery on this list, it is probably a scam.

  8. Finally, even if you do see the name on this list, look at number 6 - any email FROM one of these lotteries, must be a scam.

If you operate (or know of) a legitimate, legal lottery that we do not have on this list, use this form to tell us about it. Before we add it to the list, we will independently confirm the information with the governing agency in their country.

List of real, legal, legitimate Lotteries

Generally, these are national or state/province lotteries.

Official United States of America Lotteries Web Sites

  • NOTICE: The United States Federal Government only operates the Visa "lottery" listed below, which provides visas, not money or winnings.  There is NO Green Card lottery nor any other type of lottery.

  • It is illegal for US residents to play foreign lotteries from the United states

 Shared games (multi-state)

  • Mega Millions - Mega Millions (formerly The Big Game) is a multi-state USD$1 lottery game in the United States. Twelve U.S. states currently license Mega Millions as the monopoly provider of multi-state lotteries. As of 2006, Mega Millions features jackpots of at least $12 million, payable in 26 annual payments or a reduced lump sum cash payout.
  • Lotto South - Lotto South was a multi-state lottery game in Georgia, Kentucky, and Virginia. It resulted form the merger of the three states' main games ' Lotto Georgia, Lotto Kentucky, and Lotto Virginia ' into one in September 2001. In January 2006, it was announced that Lotto South would be retired and replaced by a new game called Win For Life[1]. Lotto South's final drawing took place on February 25.
  • Powerball - Powerball is an American lottery operated by the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), a consortium of lottery commissions in 29 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Powerball is licensed as the monopoly provider of multistate lotteries in these jurisdictions.
  • Tri-State Lottery - The Tri-State Lottery was the first multi-jurisdictional lottery formed in the United States. The participating states are Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Games offered by the Tri-State Lottery include Tri-State Megabucks, Tri-State Pick 3 and Pick 4, and Tri-State Triple Play.

Lotteries operated by individual states in the United States

Notice that not all states currently have lotteries. Those that do have a lottery always have their own website.  Click on the blue, underlined name of the state to see their lottery's website.

  • You cannot purchase a ticket to a State Lottery on the Internet.  You are never notified if you win.  You must check your ticket against winning numbers.

  • The individual American States listed below operate lotteries that require the purchase of a ticket at either a store or a ticket machine in that state. 

  • ALL LOTTERIES must be licensed and registered with their respective Gaming or Lottery Commission in their State!

1 Alabama - no State Lottery
2 Alaska - no State Lottery
3 Arizona
4 Arkansas - no State Lottery
5 California
6 Colorado
7 Connecticut
8 Delaware
9 Florida
10 Georgia
11 Hawaii - no State Lottery
12 Idaho
13 Illinois
14 Indiana
15 Iowa
16 Kansas
17 Kentucky
18 Louisiana
19 Maine
20 Maryland
21 Massachusetts
22 Michigan
23 Minnesota
24 Mississippi - no State Lottery (they do have casinos - but no playing or gambling is allowed online!)
25 Missouri
26 Montana
27 Nebraska
28 Nevada - the Nevada State Constitution does not permit lotteries.  Gambling is legal in certain cities (eg. Las Vegas) in person only.
29 New Hampshire
30 New Jersey
31 New Mexico
32 New York
33 North Carolina: NC PowerBall, NC Cash 5, NC Pick 3.
34 North Dakota
35 Ohio
36 Oklahoma - no State Lottery
37 Oregon
38 Pennsylvania
39 Rhode Island
40 South Carolina
41 South Dakota
42 Tennessee
43 Texas
44 Utah - no State Lottery
45 Vermont
46 Virginia
47 Washington State
48 West Virginia
49 Wisconsin
50 Wyoming - no State Lottery

All countries, other than the United States, in alphabetical order

Argentina

Quiniela, Loto and various others.

Austria

  • Lotto 6 aus 45, "Euro Millions" and Zahlenlotto

Australia

Lotteries in Australia include various lotto related products licensed by Australian lottery companies, comprising mainly of state government-owned corporations - New South Wales Lotteries, Golden Casket, South Australian Lotteries and Lotterywest - plus one private-sector company, Tattersalls, which operates in the states not covered by the state-owned operators. Although the organisations are predominantly state-based, Australia has a number of national lottery games. These games are typically administered by one of the above companies, and syndicated through the Australian Lotto Bloc.

  • Western Australia - LotteryWest - It has come to our attention that unauthorised overseas operators are communicating by mail and email to people throughout the world purporting to be Lotterywest or to represent Lotterywest. These communications advise that the recipient has won a large prize and request that further details be sent to Lotterywest (or the sender) in order that the prize can be claimed. They then eventually ask the recipient to pay a fee (sometimes described as a handling fee) for the prize to be paid. Please note that unless you have purchased a Lotterywest ticket in Western Australia and are one of our registered players, the correspondence you have received is a SCAM. If you wish to check please email us on contact@lotterywest.wa.gov.au  or phone us on + 618 9340 5100
  • New South Wales
  • Queensland - Golden Casket is the authorised lottery
  • South Australia -
  • Victoria - The Victorian public lotteries licence is currently held by Tattersall's Limited (615 St Kilda Road, Melbourne VIC 3000). The licence was transferred from the Trustees of the Will and Estate of the late George Adams on 31 May 2005. The appointed subsidiary is Tattersall's Sweeps Pty Ltd (615 St Kilda Road, Melbourne VIC 3000). Click here for more information about scams about Tattersall's.

Barbados

The Barbados lottery is the national lottery in the country of Barbados. It is owned by the Barbados Olympic Association. The games the company have are:
* Lotto,
* Double Draw,
* Nuffcash,
* Sscratch,
* PowerPlay and
* Bingo.
The results are aired nightly on the television and printed in the daily newspapers of Barbados. For each game you must buy a a ticket. When the results are shown after the draw everyone must check their ticket to see if their ticket matches the results. The person holding that matching ticket wins.

Belgium

  • Loterie Nationale or Nationale Loterij and "Euro Millions"

Brazil

Mega-Sena and various others

Bulgaria

  • TOTO 2 6/49

Canada

There are legitimate lotteries in Canada, but they work similarly to lotteries in the United States:  individual provinces sell their own tickets:

Croatia

Denmark

  • Lotto

Dominican Republic

  • leidas,s.a.

Ecuador

Europe

Finland

  • National lottery: Lotto

France

Germany

Greece

  • National lottery: Lotto 6/49 , Joker 5/45 + 1/20 and various others

Hong Kong

Hungary

  • National lottery: Lott

India

Ireland

  • An Post National Lottery Company - An Post National Lottery Company (Irish Comhlacht Chrannchur Nisinta An Post) is the company which has the licence of "the National Lottery" (Irish: "an Crannchur Nisinta") of the Republic of Ireland. The company was founded by its parent company An Post under a licence issued by the Minister for Finance under the National Lottery Act, 1986. The running of the lottery games, is handled by a contractor, GTECH Ireland, a wholly owned subsidiary of GTECH Corp, listed on New York Stock Exchange as GTK.

Israel

  • National lottery: "Lotto"

Italy

  • National lottery: Lotto, Superenalotto

Japan

Latvia

  • National lottery: Latloto 5/35, SuperBingo, Keno. Visit: [2]

Luxembourg

  • "Euro Millions"

Malaysia

  • National lottery: Sports Toto, Magnum and Magnum 4D, Pan Malaysian Pools (da ma chai)

Malta

  • National lottery: Super 5 (Every Wednesday), Lotto (Lottu in Maltese) (Every Saturday)

Mexico

Netherlands

New Zealand

Norway

  • National lottery: Lotto

Philippines

  • National lottery: Lotto 6/42, Mega Lotto 6/45, Super Lotto 6/49, 6 Digits Luzon, 4 Digits, Suertres Lotto, EZ2 Lotto

Poland

  • National lottery: Lotto

Portugal

Puerto Rico

Romania

Russia

  • National lottery: Sportloto

Serbia

Singapore

  • National lottery: TOTO, 4D

Slovakia

Slovenia

  • National lottery: Loterija Slovenije

South Africa

South Korea

  • National lottery: Lotto

Spain

  • El Gordo de la Primitiva
  • El Gordo de Navidad.

The Spanish Ministry of the Treasury has advised us that legitimate lottery tickets can only be purchased from authorized ticket sellers in Spain. Let us repeat that: The El Gordo lotteries are only open to Spanish residents - you CANNOT win if you are not IN Spain. This annual lottery, held right before Christmas, has been receiving a lot of attention in the US media, due to the large sums involved (December 22, 2011 had a $5 million pot) Two housewives' associations in Granen, with 2,000 inhabitants, and its neighboring village of Sodeto in the northern region of Aragon split a record 4 million euros ($5.22 million) .  El Gordo, which means "The Fat One" will award 180 first prizes of 3.36 million when the draw is made at lottery headquarters in Madrid. There will also be 180 second prizes of 1.05 million, 180 third prizes of 420,000 and so on down to a one in seven chance for gamblers to get back their original outlay. A single El Gordo ticket costs 200 euros ($263, or 168). Most gamblers buy a tenth of a ticket at 20 euros, which will bring them 400,000 euros if it has the first prize number. But many people buy even smaller shares from their local bar or hairdressers or butchers shop.

 The official agency that oversees lotteries in Spain (see this link for a warning about scams in Spanish: Loterias y Apuestas del Estado) has information on this fraud on its website. Click on the link on the left hand side called "Otros Avisos" for the warning about these lotteries and information on how to contact this agency. The information is available in Spanish and English.
  • National lottery: Loterias y Apuestas del Estado
  • "Euro Millions"

Switzerland

Both of these names, Swiss Lotto and Euromillions are used in many scams.

  • National lottery: Swiss Lotto
  • "Euro Millions"

Taiwan

Turkey

  • National lottery: Various games by Milli Piyango İdaresi (National Lottery Administration) including Loto 6/49 and jackpots

United Kingdom

These are the only legal lotteries in Britain:

 

 

For a comprehensive list of national and international agencies to report scams, see this page.