Anyone kicking themselves for not buying bitcoin sooner now has a novel way to make amends. One of Ireland’s best known lottery operators is offering a bitcoin bounty worth millions of dollars. In exchange for picking six numbers, entrants – who aren’t limited to the Republic of Ireland – will be entered into a draw whose current jackpot stands at 1,025 BTC. The odds of success are slender to say the least, but Lottoland are confident that plenty of bettors will be willing to take their chances.
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Play With Fiat, Win With Bitcoin
Lottoland, established in 2013, is one of Ireland’s best known lottery operators. It’s courted controversy in the past for allowing punters to bet on lotteries held in other jurisdictions such as America’s Powerball and Europe’s Mega Millions. Nevertheless, the company has gained a sizeable market share in the Emerald Isle, helped by its savvy marketing tactics.
In launching its own bitcoin lottery, Lottoland is cashing in on the craze for cryptocurrencies that is sweeping the world, with bitcoin at the head of that charge. “The world is going Bitcoin bonkers and so are we!” proclaims the Lottoland website. A daily draw, held at 8:30pm GMT Monday to Saturday, has a 1,000+ BTC jackpot up for grabs. Players will need to match all six numbers on their card to scoop the USD $18 million bonanza, although smaller payouts can also be won. One in seven bets will win a prize of some kind.
Nocoiner No More
Players who find themselves in the enviable position of winning will be faced with a conundrum: to accept their prize in fiat currency or to have the sum sent as cryptocurrency directly to their bitcoin wallet. With annual revenue of around $355m, more than 300 employees and around six million customers – many of whom hail from outside of Ireland – Lottoland have been enjoying great success.
“Bitcoin is a worldwide phenomenon, and Lottoland is giving our customers the opportunity to get involved in the big league,” gushed the company’s Irish country manager Graham Ross.
Bitcoin and betting have long been bedfellows, with hi/lo gambling site Satoshidice one of the first applications for spending the cryptocurrency. In more recent years, bitcoin has gained traction at a number of ‘provably fair’ cryptocurrency casinos, and many more online casinos and sportsbooks have added BTC as a deposit and withdrawal option.
Whether any victor, suddenly faced with a multi-million dollar windfall, will be brave enough to take it all in bitcoin remains to be seen. With even one bitcoin priced beyond the means of most investors today, Lottoland’s offer is sure to attract interest. The odds might be slim, but the prospect of going from nocoiner to bitcoin thousandaire in an instant is certainly enticing.
Would you accept a multi-million jackpot in bitcoin, or would you stick with fiat currency? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, and Lottoland.
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