
It doesn't matter if you're an LA resident, you’ve just moved into town from out of state or you’re from overseas on the Hollywood holiday of a lifetime - the good news is you can play and win Los Angeles lotteries!
Simply by just being in LA, California, you have access to multiple lottery games, scratchers and the exclusive 2nd Chance prizes if you create an account. We’ll tell you all about how you can sign up to the Los Angeles Lottery and win prizes here at CaptainGambling!
All lottery games that you can legally play in the city of Los Angeles are provided by, and controlled by, the California State Lottery. This state lottery commission is the only provider of lottery and scratcher games in LA and in California as a whole - they have a hold over everything, from the retail ticket sales to the Los Angeles lotto online. There are three main weekly draws in California - SuperLotto, Powerball and MegaMillions, which we’ll detail for you below.
Just FYI, the rhyme in the title - totally intended!
Through the California State Lottery, you can buy three different types of Los Angeles lotto tickets for weekly games as well as multiple daily games scratchers and have access to the 2nd Chance prizes via your online Lottery account. We’ve kindly provided you with a breakdown of the different types of Los Angeles Lotteries and California lotteries below:
There are three weekly draws that you can buy tickets for when visiting or living in LA - PowerBall, MegaMillions and SuperLotto Plus, which is the original CA lottery. The SuperLotto and PowerBall are both drawn every Saturday, while the MegaMillions is drawn every Tuesday and incorporates other states and cities. As the very name suggests, the MegaMillions is the most valuable draw when it comes to the ultimate prize, then comes the PowerBall and lastly the SuperLotto Plus, which “only” offers an eight figure jackpot, hardly worth buying a ticket really!
As well as the weekly draws, known for those big money prizes that we all claim, you can also buy Los Angeles lotto tickets for a number of daily draws These include these are the Daily 3, Daily 4 and Fantasy 5. In addition, you have the Hot Spot Bulls Eye and Daily Derby. The times that each of these daily draws are staggered throughout the day between morning and prime time. As you were most likely expecting, the prizes for the daily draws are lower - ranging between five and six figures sums - still not bad at all though!
Everybody loves a good scratcher, don’t they? If you agree with this statement, then you’ll be bowled over by the fact that the California State Lottery offers no less than 50 different scratch card games. They can’t be played online, however the California State lottery website gives you all of the details you could possibly want about each game, from rules, to prizes and ways to win - you can even see an image of each card scratched and unscratched.
We suppose you want to know about prices and prizes don’t you? There are three different price ranges for the California lotto scratchers; $2, $5 and $10. The $2 max prize is usually around $20,000, the $5 scratchers can go upto $100,000 while the $10 scratch card even offers multi million dollar prizes - definitely not to be snuffed at, huh? Whatsmore, remember to sign up to Los Angeles lotto online and you can claim your 2nd Chance entries - find out more about that directly below!
This is probably the best thing about the California State Lottery - every dollar you spend gets you a second chance at winning a five figure sum on losing tickets! Buy a SuperLotto Plus, Fantasy 5 or a losing scratcher and you’ll notice a 2nd Chance code is contained on the back. If you sign up to Los Angeles Lotto online and enter the code you have the chance to win a five figure prize depending on the type of ticket you have.
Rather than being one entry per ticket, you get one entry per $1 that you spend. Therefore if you buy a $5 Fantasy 5 ticket, the code you have will get you five entries into 2nd Chance. Similarly, a $10 scratcher gets you ten entries with the one code. The 2nd chance prizes are as follows:
SuperLotto Plus - $15,000
Fantasy 5 - $10,000
Losing Scratchers - $25,000
Traditionally, lottery tickets were bought over the counter and you had to watch the lottery draw live on TV. If you missed it, you had to find the newspaper, watch for the numbers on the news or ask a friend or neighbor. Imagine that we once lived in such a time, huh. Today almost no one watches the numbers come up live, as they’re all displayed online with the excellent California Lotto Website and in the downloadable app.
While buying Los Angeles lotto tickets online is a bit of a complex matter - we’ll detail more below, it’s definitely worthwhile to create your very own Lottery account. The main reason being so that you can use the 2nd Chance code on the back of your tickets. To create your account, simply head to calottery.com or download the Lottery App and fill out the form - it’s super quick and easy without any lengthy verification process at all.
You can buy everything from groceries to books and car insurance online these days - so surely that now extends also to Los Angeles lotto tickets? You’d think so, but however, it’s actually not currently possible. Even in 2023, the only way to buy lotto tickets in LA and California is to go into an actual licensed Lottery retailer and pay for it in cash over the counter. We wouldn’t let you be disheartened by this - there are thousands upon thousands of licensed retailers in the state, so there’s sure to be one nearby where you are.
So why does the Los Angeles lotto online service not extend to digital or mailing ticket sales, is the state that’s home to Silicon Valley really that digitally behind when it comes to its lottery? This has nothing to do with some stubborn traditionalism or the dated structure of the California State Lottery - which began back in 1984 by the way - short history lesson. Instead, there is actually a logical reason behind it - it keeps the lottery in the state and prevents fraud. If you were able to buy online, millions from all over the world could buy tickets, thus reducing the chances of winning for actual California residents.
They could try and implement some form of system whereby online California residents overseas, but that would require strict verification and would no doubt get abused. And besides that, California doesn’t like to discriminate and restrict the Los Angeles lotteries to only citizens of the city. People from all over the world live, work and vacation in this great city, and surely they deserve a pop at the lotto don’t they? That leads us to answer one of the most common questions about the Cali state lottery below.
LA is a tourist city in a tourist state and has permanent or temporary residents from across the US and all over the world. So what happens if you’re in town for either business or pleasure, buy a bunch of Los Angeles lotto tickets and one of ‘em wins?
Good news!
You are allowed to play and collect your winnings from all Los Angeles lotteries if you are from elsewhere in the US, or anywhere in the world for that matter. You do, however, have to be in Los Angeles, or elsewhere in California, in order to buy your ticket, as they can’t be bought online, over the phone or by mail. It’s in their interests to allow everyone from temp residents, tourists and folks on business trips to increase their takings. Why? Because 34% of the money made from Los Angles lotto online toward public education - not bad, huh?
But is the process for claiming a winning ticket different for a foreigner than it is for an LA resident? Absolutely not - it’s the same process for everyone, so we’ll explain it below. As there’s a claim by mail possibility, you can still claim your winning ticket if you’re back home by the time the numbers are drawn.
Firstly, you need to check to see if you’ve won, which you can do by watching the draw live or heading to the Los Angeles lotto online site - where they’re always clearly displayed. Alternatively, you can download the app and set a notification for the game(s) that you have Los Angeles lotto tickets for.
You can claim small prizes (under $599) simply by going into the licensed lotto retailer where you bought the ticket - or any other one for that matter. If you do so, you can literally get your winnings over the counter in cold hard cash, no questions asked. Alternatively, you can download the online claims form, fill it out and mail it - but it’s only really necessary to do that if you’re out of the state or out of the country by the time you win.
For the big prizes, the process is understandably stricter, but still not overly complicated. You need to firstly download and complete the online claims form with all of the details. Once done, you can either mail it to the California State lottery or take it directly to a District Office if you live near one.
Concluding Los Angeles Lotto Online
So there you have it - we’ve told you about all of the most important points that you need to consider when buying Los Angeles lotto tickets and collecting your winnings. In addition, however, we have provided you with some important FAQs that we’ve answered for you below. If you want to find out about more state and city lotteries, you can do so right here at CaptainGambling - such as our San Francisco lotto tickets guide.
Interested in sports betting or online casinos? Check out the best Online Gambling Sites US here.
Looking to play the Los Angeles lotto online? This is always something of a complex area for state and city lotteries here in the US, and probably in the wider world as well. At CaptainGambling, we’ve explored how all state lotteries handle this, including the California State Lottery and more. Does Cali hold true to their liberal values here as they are a tourist state? Follow the link to find out more about how to play lottery online.
Hoping to win big on the Los Angeles lotto online? This is an issue that each state tackles slightly differently - some have retail only, some also have retail and other channels such as online, mail or phone. To see where California stands with regards to this, we may direct you to the California state lottery page right here, which has all of the answers and details to all of your questions guaranteed. Bookmark this page today.
With most lotteries, you have to claim winning tickets as an individual person only, however, exceptions to this rule are not unheard of. Always a complex area, we’ve had the experts simplify it for you here at CaptainGambling.com. Find out the claiming rules in Los Angeles and California as a whole right here.
We studied the information on both the California State Lottery website and used the experiences of past winners in order to provide you with a well-rounded answer to this question, as the times can vary based on the prize amounts. You can find our full article and answer at CaptainGambling./faq-item]
Players must be 21 years of age or older or reach the minimum age for gambling in their respective state and located in jurisdictions where online gambling is legal. Please play responsibly. Bet with your head, not over it. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, and wants help, call or visit: (a) the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey at 1-800-Gambler or www.800gambler.org; or (b) Gamblers Anonymous at 855-2-CALL-GA or www.gamblersanonymous.org.
This site is using Cloudflare and adheres to the Google Safe Browsing Program. We adapted Google's Privacy Guidelines to keep your data safe at all times.