The New York-based mobile lottery ticket purchasing platform, Jackpocket, has partnered with BitPay to allow users to purchase lottery tickets with Bitcoin for six New York lotteries, the first time this sort of partnership has been seen.

Bitcoin for lottery tickets

In a press release by Jackpocket, a company offering the ability to buy New York lottery tickets via your mobile, it was revealed that it had partnered with the Atlanta-based global bitcoin payment service provider, BitPay, to allow users to purchase lottery tickets with Bitcoin for the first time.

A spokesperson of Jackpocket says:

“We’re pleased to announce that we are now accepting Bitcoin as another method of funding your Jackpocket account! Start funding your Jackpocket account using Bitcoin, right inside the app!”

To fund the account using Bitcoin, the user should first select the “Fund Account” button in the Jackpocket home page and then select the “Fund with Bitcoin” payment option. After that they should choose from the list of amount options: “$10, $20, $50, or $100” and the selected amount will be transferred to the Jackpocket account (sometimes it can take up to an hour). The funds will be available as credits in the Jackpocket app. Once the fund request is successfully processed, the user will receive an email from Jackpocket letting him or her know that the credits are in the account.

Simplifying the payment process

Jackpocket was very complimentary towards the cryptocurrency, highlighting its relative anonymity, time-efficiency, and low or non-existent transaction fees.

The company expects that integrating Bitcoin will elevate the payment experience for their users. Unlike credit cards, Bitcoin transactions don’t require sharing personal and financial information. “Therefore, payments are risk-free and avoid threats of fraud or identity theft”, assures Jackpocket.

Bitcoin payments are also more time-efficient. While credit card transactions often involve the grueling process of filling out billing forms, Bitcoin transactions only require a single scan and two clicks. Finally, because there are no processing fees, Bitcoin is cheaper for merchants and consumers per transaction made.

The press release states:

“Overall, we’re excited to offer Bitcoin for many reasons but most importantly to simplify the payment process and make it safer.”

Benefits of BitPay

The company justified its decision to use the payment service provider, BitPay, saying:

“BitPay is the largest and most reliable Bitcoin processor in the world. That means BitPay works with more merchants and annually makes more transactions than any other Bitcoin processor internationally (roughly 60K annually).”

In addition to this, BitPay also has the ability to integrate with any Bitcoin Wallet available in the app store. The company believes, this provides further convenience to any user who wishes to start funding their account using Bitcoin.