Powerball jackpot: How to buy a ticket online for the $1.09 billion drawing

Want to buy a lottery ticket for the $1.09 billion Powerball drawing on Wednesday night — the ninth-largest lottery prize ever offered in history — but don’t have time to stop at the corner store?

Jackpocket launched in the Bay State last summer and competitor Jackpot.com in January, allowing players to order and pay for tickets online with their lottery numbers delivered right to their phone.

The courier services work by having players create an account through an app or website and verify their age. Then, players choose the drawing game they want to play and either select their numbers or a Quic Pic ticket. Payment is deposited with a small surcharge fee into their account and can order the ticket.

Once the ticket is ordered, the company will send a representative to the lottery retailer location it’s partnered with to buy the ticket and scan it into the app for the player to view.

The largest prize ever won through a courier was on a ticket bought through Jackpocket in 2021, according to data from the company. The prize was worth $9.4 million and won in Union County, N.J. from a game called “Pick Six Lotto.”

The second-highest prize ever won through the app was a $7 million “Cash 4 Life” prize won in New York in 2022, and the third was a $5.75 million “Lucky For Life” prize won in Arkansas in 2023.

Massachusetts lottery players using Jackpocket have been the luckiest in “Mass Cash” so far, with five players winning $100,000 prizes in the game as of April 3.

The three highest Powerball prizes won through Jackpocket were each worth $2 million. One winning ticket was sold on March 9 in Ohio, another was sold in Texas on Dec. 13, 2023 and the third was sold in New York on Oct. 2, 2023.

Jackpot.com players in Massachusetts can get a free ticket on their first play through the state’s newly-introduced courier with the code “MASS” at checkout. The company was first launched in early 2023 and has since expanded to Texas, Ohio and New York.

Online lottery is still illegal in Massachusetts, conversations of which are still pending in the State House, according to the Milford Daily News.

Massachusetts Lottery Director Mark William Bracken told MassLive last week though drawing game sales have been doing well due to the courier services’ help, scratch tickets sales are plummeting without an online purchase option up against online sports bettings’ massive presence in the Bay State.

“These couriers, their sale is still my sale,” Bracken said after the lottery commissioner’s meeting on Tuesday.

“They’re actually helping us... they are definitely attracting a crowd that doesn’t normally buy a ticket online because it’s at the convenience of the phone,” he said, adding some of his lottery players who generally buy tickets in-person may have also turned to apps for convenience.

Jackpocket and Jackpot.com are both available to download as an iOS or Android app, or can be accessed through their webpages.