Playing in your weekly draw is no doubt exciting, but you don’t actually have to wait for it to come around. There are lots of great lottery alternatives both online and in your local vicinity.

Check out my list of the best lottery alternatives at your fingertips. These games all work similarly to the lottery; they’re games of chance where you match numbers or symbols for cash prizes.

You can try your luck with very little investment, usually a few bucks or even cents, in some cases. You don’t have any control of the outcomes because they are entirely random, just like the lottery.

The other common trait is that many of these offer huge prizes if you get lucky. However, they also share the negatives – the house has an advantage, so only risk money you can afford to lose.

Online Keno

Like the lottery, keno involves picking numbers and hoping to match them in a random draw. Unlike most lotteries, there are 80 numbers in keno games, and you can pick between one and 20 in most variants.

Once you have made your picks, the keno game will commence. In standard variants, 20 random numbers will be drawn. The number of ‘catches’ you get relative to your picks will determine how much you win.

These days, there are lots of different keno variants online. For example, if you catch the last ball drawn in Power Keno, you get a 4x multiplier.

How much can you win when playing keno? Your winning will always depend on the number of picks you made, how many numbers you caught, and the rules of the game.

There are progressive jackpot keno games that offer $4,000,000+ payouts. When dealing with these colossal numbers, make sure you pick a legit casino to ensure you get paid what you win.

Online Bingo

Far from being a game for grandmas on cruise ships or sitting in retirement homes in Florida, bingo is a fun numbers game that appeals to all generations. Thanks to the rise of online gaming, it has exploded in popularity, and there are lots of interesting twists on the original format.

Like keno, classic bingo games have 80 balls or numbers. You buy pre-printed bingo cards with 16 numbers on them, and as the balls are drawn, you match them. In a 75-ball bingo game, you have a 5×5 grid with the center square blanked out, giving you 24 numbers in play.

In real-world bingo halls, you use a blotter to mark numbers as you match them, and you shout ‘BINGO!’ when you match them all. In online bingo games, this is all done for you.

Live Lottery Games

With the rapid evolution of live dealer games, several lottery-style games have become popular. Examples include Mega Ball by Evolution and Vegas Ball Bonanza by Pragmatic Play.

Let’s look at how Mega Ball works to understand why this is a good alternative to lottery games. It’s set in a green and gold game studio with a transparent machine hosting 51 balls. You purchase your cards (up to 400 per round), and as the 20 balls are drawn, the ones you match are marked off on the cards.

In Mega Ball, when the last ball is drawn, a multiplier of between 5x and 100x is generated. If the Mega Ball completes a line on one of your cards, the multiplier applies.

Mega Ball has a maximum payout of 999,999x your bet. That rivals the payouts of many lotteries, and so it’s a worthy alternative.