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How this guide was prepared. Last updated October 2026. It draws on Brandmovers' experience designing player engagement and loyalty programs for regulated categories, including work with the Idaho Lottery. |
Lotteries have a loyalty problem hiding in plain sight. Traditional lottery play happens at retail, where a player can buy a ticket without leaving a trace, so a lottery can know very little about the people who fund it. Player engagement is how a lottery changes that: it turns anonymous transactions into known relationships, modernizes an experience that can feel decades old, and builds first-party data in a category where much of the play has been anonymous.
Done responsibly, and in this category responsibly is the only way it should be done, engagement deepens the relationship with existing, of-age players rather than pushing anyone to play more than they choose to. This playbook covers the mechanics that work, the responsible-gaming and regulatory realities that shape them, and how to build a program that modernizes the player relationship.
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Lottery loyalty is unlike almost any other loyalty program, for three reasons. First, the operator is usually a government entity, so the program runs inside state rules, procurement, and public accountability that a commercial brand never faces. Second, many players are anonymous: they buy tickets at retail, and a lottery has traditionally known little about who they are, which makes even basic first-party data a step change. In states that sell online, account holders are already known, and the gap is with retail players. Third, and most important, the product is gambling, so responsible gaming is not an add-on but a condition of operating at all.
These three facts mean a lottery cannot simply copy a retail points scheme. The goal is to modernize and deepen the relationship with existing, of-age players, within the rules, rather than to maximize how much anyone plays. That distinction shapes every choice that follows.
The workhorse of lottery engagement. Players enter non-winning tickets into a drawing for another chance to win, which gives a losing ticket a second life and, crucially, a reason to register. Because the ticket has already been bought, a second-chance draw drives registration and data capture without asking anyone to spend more, which makes it a lower-risk entry point, provided entry rules do not reward buying extra tickets. For most lotteries it is the natural entry point into a loyalty program. The Idaho Lottery's VIP Club, for example, runs 2nd Chance promotions in which registered members enter the code from a non-winning scratch ticket for a chance at prizes that range from more scratch tickets to grill packages. When Brandmovers modernized the Idaho Lottery's legacy loyalty program on BLOYL™ with second-chance promotions and gamification, site traffic increased over 6X compared to previous years (disclosed by Brandmovers).
A players club lets registered players enter tickets, earn points or entries, and access exclusive draws, merchandise, or experiences. It formalizes the relationship and gives the lottery a reason to communicate with players between purchases. The reward ladder should lean toward experiences and recognition rather than mechanics that simply push more play.
Apps that let players scan tickets, check numbers, enter second-chance draws, and receive notifications modernize an experience that can feel dated. Treat digital adoption as a core goal, because it is the foundation for everything else, from first-party data to the responsible-gaming tools that belong alongside it.
Recognizing engaged players with experiences, events, and access, rather than only with more chances to play, builds a relationship that does not depend on increasing spend. This is where a lottery can borrow the best of consumer loyalty, using experiences and status to deepen engagement in a way that stays aligned with responsible gaming.
In a gambling category, responsible gaming is the design rather than a footnote. A lottery loyalty program has to verify age, honor self-exclusion, surface spending and play awareness, and carry responsible-gaming messaging throughout, not tucked into a corner. The program must never be built to identify and pressure heavy players, which is both wrong and a regulatory risk; the aim is engagement and relationship, explicitly not escalation.
The clearest test is the metric you optimize. A program measured on deeper engagement, registration, and digital adoption points in the same direction as responsible gaming. One measured on getting existing players to spend more does not. Building responsible gaming in from the start is both the right thing to do and what regulators and the public rightly expect of a lottery. There is also an external standard to build to: the National Council on Problem Gambling and NASPL run a Responsible Gambling Framework Certification Program for lotteries, which began in 2015 as the Responsible Gambling Verification program and was updated in February 2026, and NASPL describes player health and responsible gambling as the lottery industry's primary corporate social responsibility objective.
The registered relationship also makes responsible gaming more possible, not less. A lottery that knows its players can offer voluntary spending limits, self-assessment, and play-awareness tools, and can build in support for at-risk patterns, in ways that anonymous retail play never allowed. The same data that could be misused for pressure is what makes genuine player protection achievable.
In practice, the safeguards are specific design requirements rather than a policy statement:
None of this makes the underlying tension disappear. Any program that increases engagement will, for some players, increase play, which is precisely why the safeguards and the choice of metric matter. They are how a lottery manages a real and permanent tension responsibly, not a claim that the tension has been removed.
The strategic prize is data. A lottery that has sold mostly anonymous tickets can come to know who its players are, what they play, and how to reach them, which transforms its ability to communicate, modernize, and serve players well. The Idaho Lottery work shows what that takes in practice: according to the case study, it meant connecting the loyalty platform to the lottery's CRM and data warehouse, updating the program's management tools and website so staff could launch second-chance promotions and triggered player communications, and adding analytics that help the lottery understand the purchase behavior of players who buy at retail.
A registered base changes what a lottery can do. It can tell players who already play about a new game directly, tie second-chance promotions to specific games, as the Idaho Lottery's 2nd Chance drawings are tied to particular scratch tickets, and communicate without relying only on retail displays and mass media. The value depends on players staying active after they register: a large list of dormant registrations costs money to maintain and says little about the relationship.
That data should be used for relevance, better communication, useful information, and responsible-gaming support, rather than for pressure. Used well, first-party data lets a lottery treat players as known people rather than anonymous transactions, which is the foundation of any real relationship.
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Mechanic |
What it does |
Responsible-gaming and regulatory note |
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Second-chance drawings |
Registration and data from non-winning tickets |
No purchase beyond the original ticket; watch game-specific tie-ins that reward extra purchases |
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Players club / rewards |
Formal relationship, points, exclusive draws |
Favor experiences over more play |
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Digital app / scanning |
Modernization, easier entry, first-party data |
Platform for age checks and responsible-gaming tools |
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Experiences / recognition |
Engagement through status, not spend |
Aligned with responsible gaming |
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Player data |
A known, consented player relationship |
Use for relevance and support, not pressure |
This is general information, not legal advice; work within your jurisdiction's rules and your responsible-gaming obligations.
Measure the relationship and the safeguards together. Lotteries raise revenue for state beneficiaries, so sales will be part of the conversation; report them as context, but do not make spend per player the program's target.
A lottery loyalty program is less about rewards than about relationship. It turns anonymous players into known ones, modernizes an aging experience, and builds the first-party data that anonymous retail play never provided, all within the responsible-gaming and regulatory bounds the category requires. Start from those bounds and design every mechanic to deepen the relationship rather than the spend. Done that way, a program can manage the tension between engagement and responsibility instead of ignoring it.
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Modernizing a lottery player experience? Brandmovers designs player engagement and loyalty programs for lotteries and other regulated categories on BLOYL, with responsible gaming and compliance considered from the start. Request a demo to talk through your program with the Brandmovers team. |