Australia’s only online lottery ticket seller, Oz Lotteries, has decided to add an extra 14 per cent to the price of a lottery ticket, making it $144 as many people bought online for last week’s $106 million draw. If you bought this same ticket at a New South Wales news stand it would cost you only $126.

The cost difference was partially explained by the fact that the news stands do not accept credit cards and the online ticket cost is always bought using a credit card. Buyers claimed they were not aware of the additional charges when they bought their chance to win online. After a punter compared the price online to that of the news stand a complaint was lodged with the Oz Lotteries organizers. The Oz Lotteries responded that its prices were posted on the web site and that the charge was for ‘superior’ service.

“Our prices are clearly stated on our site and we do not make any claims about them being more or less than elsewhere,” an email to a patron said, adding: “As with many other retail markets, our prices differ from other vendors. Customers are free to buy wherever they like.”

A spokesperson for the NSW Lotteries Corporation reported it has posted a large price warning on its web page before customers were redirected to the Oz Lotteries page. Oz Lotteries claims the extra charge covers development, web servers, banking fees and marketing - in other words the costs of doing business online.

Oz Lotteries is authorized by NSW Lotteries to retail its products with a higher fee structure. Oz Lotteries also offers its customers a facility to open gambling accounts with credit cards. The $106 million dollar jackpot was won by players in Queensland, South Australia and partially by those punters in NSW who took $720,000 home.

10 million tickets were sold in the record draw last week. NSW lotteries did not disclose how many of those tickets were sold via the internet.

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