Australia's only online seller of lottery tickets, Oz Lotteries, has decided to add an extra 14 per cent to the price of a lottery ticket sold online. This as many people were putting down money online for last week's $106 million draw. That meant that the same ticket bought at a New South Wales newsstand say for $126, would now cost another $18 when bought online from the Oz Lotterie's website. To explain the difference in cost it was noted that this could be at least partially explained by the fact that the newsstands can not accept credit cards while the online tickets are always bought using a credit card. Buyers of the online tickets complained that they were not originally aware of the additional costs attached to the sale of the tickets, when they bought them online. After one of the purchasers of an online lottery ticket had compared the price online to that being charged at a newsstand a complaint was made with the Oz Lotteries organizers. The Oz Lotteries responded by saying that their prices were already posted on the web site and that in addition, the extra charge was for 'superior' service. In an email to the complaining customer it was explained that the web site clearly state prices throughout their site and that they do not make any claims about their prices being the same or less than elsewhere. It added that as with many other retail markets, the web site’s prices differ from other vendors and that customers are given the freedom to choose to buy from wherever they please. A New South Wales Lotteries corporation spokesperson stated that the price increase had been announced with a large price warning that had been posted on its web page before redirecting customers to the Oz Lotteries page. According to Oz Lotteries the extra charge is being used to cover development, the expense of web servers, banking fees and marketing. In other words the charge is directed at offsetting the costs of doing business online. New South Wales Lotteries corporation has authorized Oz Lotteries to retail their products through the use of a higher fee structure. In addition, Oz Lotteries makes it possible for customers to open gambling accounts with credit cards. In the end the $106 million dollar jackpot was split between those players living in Queensland, South Australia and those who bet in NSW. The New South Wales winner took home $720,000. In what turned out to be a record, last weeks drawing sold 10 million tickets. The number that were actually sold online is not available from NSW lotteries. Posted on: July 23, 2009
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