Get Lucky! Scoring a Lottery Merchant Account Offshore Part 1

Get Lucky! Scoring a Lottery Merchant Account Offshore Part 1

I must confess it has taken me sometime to get the whole picture of buying lottery tickets online. Years ago, I mistook buying them as legal, selling illegal. I had originally thought anyone can buy tickets anywhere. Of course, my naivety has only been born of the fact that I don't really buy lottery tickets. Not even offline. Please don't ask me why, or whether I should try!

So obviously I did my own research and came up with interesting ideas. Lottery would always remind me of all kinds of gambling games, except that it's really big time. Jackpot prizes go over the roof. Unfortunately, I've been hearing lately that although lottery sales have been breaking records, Powerball wins are getting quieter. The immensity of the jackpot prizes give people slimmer chances of winning. But of course, all high rolling lottery games follow this path.

The thing with buying and selling lottery is that most of it is dependent on the Federal Trade Commission's regulations. According to FTC, buying and selling lottery tickets through mail, telephone or the Internet are illegal. Oh, and did I mention about doing it offshore yet?

Some old colleague asked, "So what do I need to do if I want to sell lottery tickets online?" I would like to answer her, but I felt like stepping back and saying "Are you sure you really want to?" But if most of you are like her, first take a quick look at Insider Tricks to Successful Merchant Account Application to get a good idea of what going through a high risk business entails.

And now let's go back to the original question: So what do I need to do if I want to sell lottery tickets online? First of all, it will be easier to set up this kind of high risk business offshore. As we've discussed earlier, the FTC allows companies to set up lottery businesses as long as they sell the tickets locally (in participating states) and never through mail, telephone, or online. That means your customers are limited only to the residents of your participating state. Elsewhere in the world, e-commerce lottery merchants are making good profit off worldwide buyers. So if you are bent on setting up this type of business, you would need to get a lottery merchant account offshore. This will make things easier for you as doing business offshore has a hefty number of advantages. See: Offshore Merchants

Of course I do not disregard the fact that there will always be a great degree of fraud involved in this business. That is why it's called high risk, silly! There will be disenchantment both on the buyer's and the seller's side. The buyer would suspect he isn't getting the ticket numbers he's buying online because he doesn't see the tickets for real. For buyers who are confused, most online lotteries would merely say you will acquire virtual ticket numbers for an international lotto for a small fee. The seller, on the other hand, would use a credit card processing payment system to acquire money from the customers. And they are not 100% credit card hackers online.

The situation looks sticky as it is. If you look closely though, the benefits of buying tickets online are humongous. Your faith in your luck plays an important role. Most people rely on their instincts of winning in games of chance. If you feel like you ought to bet on a Spanish super jackpot then you should. But wait. You need to fly to Europe to be able to buy lottery tickets, stay in the country until the draw date, and if you win, get paid in Spain too. Too much trouble? What if you don't win?