$1.5 Billion Powerball Jackpot Tickets Now Selling for Bitcoin

The mobile lottery ticket app, JackPocket, has officially added bitcoin payments into their offering, this will allow users to be able to buy Powerball tickets, for the most recent $1.5bn jackpot and also future prizes, using bitcoin.

The announcement was made when the Powerball jackpot climbed to an amazing record of $1.5bn recently, when won this will probably be the largest lottery prize to ever be distributed in the US.

JackPocket was Launched in 2015, they make it available for New York Residents to be able to use a mobile app to play lotteries that also includes the Powerball, the Mega Millions and three New York state lotteries.

CEO Peter Sullivan stated that the move was part of their startup mission to reducing friction for the lottery purchasing process, he added that his team were "very 'bullish' on cryptocurrencies and blockchain in general".

Sullivan said that their aim or goal was to create a more efficient lottery platform and that utilizing Bitcoin was one step in right direction to them accomplishing their goal.

He also hinted that JackPocket has experienced difficulties with their payment systems mostly due to large volumes and heavy regulation, that this created put pressure on their relationship with credit card processors, banks and card networks.

The CEO further suggested that this move would potentially attract a more affluent and tech-savvy consumer who will buy more lottery tickets, at the same time positioning the startup to taking advantage of micropayments, which is a long-debated but still a developing usage case for the technology.

JackPocket works is they scan copies of the real lottery tickets for their users, and the order are fulfilled by employees who will physically buy the tickets. The users who win more than $600 will have their tickets delivered to them so prizes can be claimed.

Investors in the company include Digital Currency Group, this is the investment vehicle owned by bitcoin enthusiast Barry Silbert.