Definition

Do lottery courier apps have to verify location?

Last reviewed 20 October 2026

Where couriers are allowed, usually yes: New Jersey requires a courier to geolocate the customer and accept ticket orders only from inside the state, re-checking every 10 minutes, while Texas banned lottery couriers outright in 2025.

What a courier is

A lottery courier buys state lottery tickets on a customer’s behalf, usually through an app, and holds or scans the ticket for them. Because lottery sales are licensed state by state, the customer has to be in the state when they place the order.

New Jersey’s rule

The courier service system shall at all times deploy a geolocation software system that will permit courier customer orders for ticket purchases be made only from within the borders of the State of New Jersey. Once logged on, the geolocation software shall detect the physical location of the courier customer every 10 minutes.

N.J.A.C. 17:20-12.11(c)

The rule is precise about scope. Geolocation “is not required for creating an account, logging into an account, funding an account, or any other action that does not involve ordering tickets.” The check belongs at the order, which is the act the law regulates (N.J.A.C. 17:20-12.11(c)).

Texas went the other way

In June 2025 Texas made it an offence to order or sell lottery tickets for compensation through an app or by phone (SB 3070). There is no location check to pass, because the service is not allowed.

Other states

Courier rules differ by state. Check each state’s current rules. Not legal advice.

What this does not establish

A verdict answers for a device, not a person. It says an enrolled device was inside or outside a region at a time. It does not say who was holding it. Use it alongside identity verification, never instead of it. It does raise the cost of cheating: instead of a VPN subscription, a cheater needs real devices and a person in the permitted place for every transaction.