Washington D.C. Lottery Online: Top Legal Washington D.C. Lottery Sites

At the time of writing this article there is currently no Washington D.C. online lottery. The District of Columbia has a relatively short history with lottery games as they first became legal in 1982. It is an excellent revenue maker, boasting over $210 million in ticket sales for 2018 alone. Bear in mind that all information in this article has been compiled with the help of official state sources including the Washington D.C. Lottery website.Best Washington D.C. Lottery Website to Play for Real Money:

Jessica Whitehouse, Editor at online-gambling.com

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Jessica Whitehouse is among the professional online-gambling.com editors in charge of ensuring that our readers get the best and most reliable news and details from the online gambling world. Her focus is on blackjack and roulette reviews, lottery, and more.

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Washington D.C. Lottery Games

Let’s move on with our Washington D.C. online lottery review and look at the available games that you can partake in. They are divided into a few categories, such as draw games, instant games, fast play, Keno and virtual sports. Although you can’t play Washington D.C. lottery online, you can buy tickets through their website. Refer to the table below for more details:

In the coming sections, we will be going over each category of Washington D.C. lottery games in more detail. Make sure to go over each one that interests you so that you are best prepared before taking a chance. Washington D.C. mostly offers draw games, scratch game and since 2018 online sports betting and virtual sports.

Washington D.C. Draw Games

The most known type of lottery is draw games, where number are drawn on a random basis. In this category, you buy a ticket and select a set combination of numbers that you would like to bet on. When the time comes, a draw is organized (usually every week) and depending on the combination of numbers you have on your ticket, you will get various prizes. The most popular Washington D.C. draw game is the Mega Millions (5 of 70 and 1 of 25), where the jackpot begins at $15 million!

In the listing above we have mentioned the most popular types of Washington D.C. draw games. They all have their own betting style and way of determining the winners. Both prizes and rules vary from game to game as even the pool of numbers and draw patterns are unique. Let’s continue on with the Washington D.C. lottery scratch off games.

Washington D.C. Lottery Scratch Off Games

Nothing beats the ease of use and instant rush that scratchers give. When it comes to Washington D.C. lottery games, scratch offs are quite popular. Unfortunately, just like you can’t play Washington D.C. lottery online, you can’t play an online lottery scratch game. They are offered only in physical format, which has to be bought from a land-based retailer. One of the best Washington D.C. scratchers is Capital Fortune.

We have mentioned above only a few of the most popular Washington D.C. lottery scratch off games as there are way too numerous to list here. As you can already tell, the way they work is that you buy a ticket, scratch off the covered areas and see if you win a prize. This is the most instant form of gambling available in the state.

Washington D.C. Fast Play Lottery Games

As we mentioned earlier, scratchers are the best Washington D.C. lottery instant games. The titles we would like to mention in this section come very close to the sheer speed and ease of use that the previous one have. Washington D.C. lottery fast play games give you the convenience of not filling out a ticket. You can go to a D.C. Fast Play retailer or terminal and just get your ticket instantly printed. The most popular one is DC Jackpot.

Fast Play games are yet another form of Washington D.C. lottery that is not available online to the players. Due to the recent legislation changes, there are high hopes that the local government will review the laws surrounding online lottery and change them.

Keno in Washington D.C.

Keno is a fast and fun Washington D.C. lottery game. You can win up to $1 million if you are lucky to match all numbers. How you proceed is that you need to select a set of numbers on your ticket that can vary from 1 to 80. At a set time and date 20 numbers will be drawn randomly and depending on your number combination, your rewards will vary.

Depending on the amount of numbers you picked and matched your prize will be given out to you. You will not need to match all 20 numbers to grab the jackpot as the odds are near astronomical. You can claim the $1 million bucks by just getting 10 numbers right.

Washington D.C. Virtual Sports Gambling

This is the most recent type of gambling to be legalized in The District of Columbia. This was made possible in 2018 when the US Supreme Court removed the ban on online sports betting and handed over the legislation details to the different local governments. You can enjoy virtual sports in Washington D.C. from placing an online bet on your favorite team to playing daily fantasy sports.

You can wager on the most popular sports that are available in the US, such as football, basketball, baseball, hockey and more. Of course, you will need to be aware of each game’s rules, bet types and more. We have all of that in detail in our Sports Betting Guide.

Washington D.C. Lottery Online Odds

Best Odds Washington D.C. Lottery Games:

In this section, we would like to concentrate on the best odds Washington D.C. lottery games. In this gambling industry, the rules are firmly set and there are no unknown variables. This means that you can predict your odds of getting a prize very accurately. You can find the best lottery games in Washington D.C. when it comes to the odds you have of winning:

As you can probably tell, at the top of our chart sit the scratch off games. They are the fastest and easiest way to win money when it comes to lottery. Closely behind them follows Keno as the chance to win even the lowest prize if 1 to 4. This doesn’t mean that the rest of the Washington D.C. lottery draw games are to be skipped. Yes, they have steeper odds, but they also have much larger prizes.

Washington D.C. Online Lottery Apps

As we have mentioned earlier, there is no current Washington D.C. online lottery as it is illegal. Maybe in the future when the laws change, there will be apps developed where you can buy tickets and play online. There are many cases, where lotto operators develop their own mobile apps which even surpass the original website. One such case, which is also an alternative is using the Jackpocket lottery app. With it, you can win millions with ease on different other lotteries as long as you are lucky!

Washington D.C. Lottery Website and Promotions

While online lottery is not yet legal in the state, there are some promotions that you can take advantage of via the D.C. Lottery Collect ‘N Win app. When you store your tickets in the app, you will receive a symbol for each one. Collect enough symbols, and you will win extra chances for drawings for prizes of up to $1,000. You can also take advantage of second chance promotions on the official Washington D.C. lottery website. You can also join the Player’s Club and get additional benefits of contests and raffle draws. You can find more details on that in our gambling in Washington D.C. guide.

Washington D.C. Lottery Law

Washington D.C. lottery has been legal since 1983. It is managed by the Office of Lottery and Gaming. Their main objective is to generate income for the state through the local gambling market. They try their best to educate the locals that playing the lottery is not a financial investment and that it should be done for fun. The OLG of Washington D.C. thinks that any rewards you get should be considered as a bonus to the enjoyment.

Responsible gambling is one of the crucial focuses of the organization, and they are advocates for it. As with the regulatory bodies in other states, the Office of Lottery and Gaming of The District of Columbia are responsible for the lottery regulations.

Washington D.C. Lotto Online Gambling Age

The legal age for a person to be able to buy a lottery ticket is at least 18 years old. While there is no Washington D.C. online lottery yet, chances are that if it is legalized in the future, it will share the same regulation. Such is the case in most other states, where lottery tickets are sold to player of age 18 and older. There are, of course, some exceptions, where the ages differ. Such examples are Nebraska, where you need to be 19 years old to play the lottery, whereas, in Arizona, Iowa and Louisiana require you to be at least 21.

• Online Lottery Age
  The legal lottery age in Washington D.C. is 18 years old. The same will most likely apply when online lottery is legalized.
• Alcohol Age
  The legal drinking age in the state of Washington D.C. is 21 years old just like in the majority of other states.
• Weed Age
  The age for Medical and Recreational Cannabis usage is 21 years old in Washington D.C.

Taxes on Lottery Winnings

It is common practice in the USA for states to list lottery winnings as taxable income. This means that for every reward you get, you will have to pay 8.5% in taxes. On top of that, 25% is withheld in the form of federal tax, but that is only if the amount exceeds $5,000. In case that you are not a local of Washington D.C., you will have to pay the taxes in your resident jurisdiction.

History of The Washington D.C. Lottery

Lottery in Washington D.C. starts out humble in 1982 with just one game, called Match 3. It was an instant success and thanks to it, later in 1984, the first draw game was introduced to the public. D.C. Lucky Numbers is a draw 3 game, which had astonishing success as well. As a result, during the years more draw games were launched and additional mid-way draws applied. Washington D.C. introduced Powerball in 1992 as one of the largest national lotteries and later in 2010 add a second one to the list – Mega Millions.

Famous Winners – Janice Gray, The Surprise Millionaire

In 2016, a woman named Janice Gray joined the Washington D.C. Millionaire’s Club thanks to her lottery win. The story is that she asked a salesclerk to check the ticket she earlier bought and filled. The clerk advised her to contact the lottery headquarters and did not mention that Janice’s ticket was a big winner. With the expectation that she won no more than $100, Ms. Gray was taken aback when the lottery HQ confirmed she had won $1 million!

Washington D.C. Responsible Gambling

In general, gambling can be very addictive if left unchecked and not consumed in moderate amounts. Both our team and the Washington D.C. Office of Lottery and Gambling advise to keep gambling as something fun and not as a financial investment.

If you or someone you know are suffering from compulsive gambling that has turned into an addiction, please contact the National Council on Problem Gambling. They offer a 24hour confidential help line.

Legal Online Lottery Outside of Washington D.C.

The USA only recently started re-visiting their laws concerning online gambling in general thanks to the Supreme Court decision from 2018. There are only a few states that actually allow legal online lottery, but unfortunately, Washington D.C. is not one of them as of the moment of writing this review.

Of course, you can check out other states where this is legal. You can check out our Maine lottery guide or online lottery in PA guide for more details. These were one of the first states, where players could legally play lottery online.

Upcoming Washington D.C. Online Lottery Law Changes

There are no upcoming laws that are due to change any of the current lottery legal status in the District of Columbia. While there were some changes to online gaming in general, lottery was not impacted at all. We will be keeping you up to date if there are any changes, so make sure to check in to this guide regularly.

Lottery Guides for Nearby States

• Ohio Lottery Guide
• Virginia Lottery
• Kentucky Lottery Online
• Pennsylvania Online Lottery