US lotteries sold $113.3 billion in tickets, according to the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL), yet the largest state lotteries show up in few AI answers. In EPR's 2026 Lottery AI Visibility Index, California, New York, Florida and Texas were absent from AI citations on "How do I play Powerball" while smaller lotteries such as Missouri, Illinois and Maryland appeared. Lottery couriers are the first national lottery brands and are competing to fill that gap.
Last updated October 14, 2026. Part of EPR's gambling coverage and its lottery sub-pillar. This article covers lottery marketing and is not gambling advice.
Why can't AI engines see the US lottery?
AI engines struggle to see the US lottery because each state runs its own lottery with its own marketing and no shared national brand. State lotteries are government operations that do not compete with each other, so the citation record holds a lot of state-level detail and few national lottery brands.
EPR's 2026 Lottery AI Visibility Index measured 28 lottery brands across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews using 65 prompts. It found that on the query "Lottery tax rate by state 2026" the engines cited NerdWallet, WorldPopulationReview, BrightTax and other third parties, and no state lottery website. It also found that the nine largest state lotteries by sales were absent from the Powerball how-to-play citations.
The sales figure needs a caveat. NASPL reports $113.3 billion for US lottery sales. The Census Bureau series, cited by the National Conference of State Legislatures, put state lottery ticket sales at $104.7 billion in fiscal year 2024. The two sources count different products. Both are gross ticket sales that include prizes paid, so they are not comparable to the revenue that casinos and sportsbooks report after winnings.
What is a lottery courier, and who are the main ones?
A lottery courier is a service that buys official state lottery tickets for a customer, scans them and holds a digital copy in the customer's account. Couriers charge a commission on deposits and not on winnings, according to SBC Americas, which reported a 15% commission for Jackpot.com in 2024.
Courier
Verified facts
Source
Jackpocket
DraftKings agreed to acquire it on February 11, 2024 and closed the deal on May 22, 2024. Total consideration was $773.1 million at closing. Jackpocket is certified through the National Council on Problem Gambling's iCAP program
Independent courier led by CEO and co-founder Akshay Khanna. Named the Associated Press's official lottery courier and results provider in June 2024. Named official lottery courier of 7-Eleven in November 2024, starting in more than 600 stores in Ohio and Massachusetts
Announced a partnership with Birches Health in early 2025 for responsible play education and player support. The company says it launched with iCAP certification, which is Jackpot.com's own claim
DraftKings CEO Jason Robins described the deal's logic on the closing call, saying Jackpocket creates "big mass cheap customer acquisition opportunities" that cross-sell into sportsbook and iGaming, according to SBC Americas. EPR analyzes that playbook in The DraftKings Performance Branding Paradox.
Texas turned from a courier market into a courier ban in 2025. The Texas Lottery Commission voted on April 29, 2025 to ban third-party courier sales, and Governor Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 3070 in June 2025. The Texas Tribune reported that the law abolishes the commission and criminalizes online sale of lottery tickets through couriers. A Texas jackpot won through Jackpocket and a bulk-purchase jackpot in 2023 drove the scrutiny.
Jackpot.com was operating in Texas in June 2024, according to SBC Americas, so the ban removed one of its markets. EPR's Index counts Jackpot.com's Texas exit among the damage to three of the six couriers it measured. EPR covers the wider regulatory cascade in The Sweepstakes Casino Wipeout.
Which lottery couriers win AI answers?
In EPR's Index, third-party review sites win courier-evaluation queries, not the couriers themselves. BettingUSA, PlayUSA and LotteryNGo were the winners on those queries, and Jackpocket.com and courier brand sites were among the losers. Lotto.com had the strongest courier citation profile.
The Index also reports that three of six couriers were damaged in AI answers: Jackpocket after the DraftKings deal, Lottery.com because of its SEC history, and Jackpot.com because of its Texas exit. That result runs against a common assumption that a courier with partnerships will win AI discovery by default. Partnerships with the Associated Press or 7-Eleven give a courier press coverage. In EPR's data, the review sites that engines cite are the ones that decide the answer.
What should lotteries and couriers do about AI visibility?
Who
Move
Evidence in EPR's Index
State lotteries
Publish structured how-to-play pages and state-specific tax guidance with FAQ markup
Smaller lotteries with structured how-to-play content outperformed the largest state lotteries, and no state lottery site appeared on the tax query
Couriers
Earn coverage and reviews on the third-party sites engines already cite for courier comparisons
BettingUSA, PlayUSA and LotteryNGo won courier-evaluation queries
The next step for any lottery brand is to ask each engine the questions its players ask, record which sources it cites, and fix the gap where the brand is missing and a third party is cited.
Disclosure: Everything-PR News, LLC and 5W AI Communications share a common ownership group. The Lottery AI Visibility Index was researched by 5W AI Communications and published by Everything-PR. Related: 5W's State Lottery Marketing Guide, Inside AI's Online Casino Blind Spot and Seven States Allow Online Casino. Guess Which One AI Recommends.
Why is the US lottery industry hard to find in AI search?
Each state runs its own lottery without a national brand or national advertising, so AI engines find state-level detail and few national lottery brands to cite. EPR's 2026 Lottery AI Visibility Index found the nine largest state lotteries absent from Powerball how-to-play citations.
What is a lottery courier service?
A lottery courier buys official state lottery tickets on a customer's behalf, scans them and holds a digital copy in the customer's account. Couriers earn a commission on deposits and not on winnings.
How much did DraftKings pay for Jackpocket?
DraftKings announced a deal worth about $750 million on February 11, 2024. Its 2024 annual report lists total consideration of $773.1 million when the deal closed on May 22, 2024.
Can lottery couriers operate in Texas?
Not under the law as signed. Governor Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 3070 in June 2025, which the Texas Tribune reported criminalizes the online sale of lottery tickets through couriers. Check the current status before relying on this, because one courier challenged the rule in court.
Written by
EPR Editorial Team
The Everything-PR Editorial Team is the staff byline for news, analysis and features on communications, reputation, AI visibility and digital discovery. Everything-PR has published since 2009. AI tools assist with research and drafting, and every article is reviewed by a human editor before publication. Coverage follows the Editorial Policy, and substantive corrections are noted on the article under the Corrections Policy.
