Apps that are developed and released by official lottery operators tend to be something that we cannot wait to take a look at. The main reason behind this is because the lottery operators generally have a good idea of what their players want, and they work hard to make sure that their app delivers on this. In this Official Texas Lottery App review, we will look at whether or not the Texas Lottery organization has given the masses what they want or if it has missed the mark.
Stand-Out Feature
You may expect the main feature of an app created by a lottery operator to be the ability to purchase tickets to draws held by that operator. Unfortunately, that is not the case with the Official Texas Lottery App. Instead, the stand-out feature of the app is actually split between two different features.
The first of these two features is the ability to see past winning numbers and jackpots. This lotto results feature is well made and allows you to select any of the lotteries available and see what the most recent winning numbers are as well as what the estimated jackpot for the latest draw was. If you are looking for a draw that happened even further in the past, you can also select to view the past winning numbers.
The second feature—that works somewhat hand in hand with the first one mentioned—is the ticket scanner offered by the app. Rather than checking the winning numbers and then having to see if your numbers match, the app allows you to use your device camera to scan the barcode printed on your ticket. The app will then pull the data from your ticket and compare it to the winning numbers. It will then tell you if you should try again or if you should start celebrating.
When we looked online, however, it appears that there has been a fair share of problems with the ticket scanner function. In fact, most of the negative reviews that the app has received in the app stores it’s available on is about the ticket scanner being faulty. However, it looks as if the developer has finally sorted that problem out and now provides a great app with a ticket scanner that works.
Additional Features
The app has a wide selection of additional features for you to make use of. These features include:
Retailer Locator: This feature allows you to use your device location and see all retailers near you that you can visit to purchase a lottery ticket. If you are not comfortable sharing your device location, the app also allows you to manually enter a physical location and see what retailers are near you.
Scratch Tickets: In this part of the app, you will be able to see all the scratchers available from Texas Lottery. The app gives you all the information regarding the scratch cards that you could want and allows you to check where to purchase them using the same function as the Retail Locator.
Create a Play: This great function allows you to select any of the supported lotteries and build a play. This means that you can choose your own numbers (or just shake your phone to activate quick pick), select the number of draws you would like to play, and select any other options that are available depending on your chosen lottery. Once this is all done, you can simply click Create Play. Doing this will cause the app to generate a QR code that you can scan at any authorised retailer. This will transfer all your chosen information to the retailer and allow them to print out your ticket quickly and easily.
My Lucky Numbers: Working in conjunction with Create a Play, this feature allows you to save specific number sequences for repeated use. To keep numbers, simply follow the steps of Create a Play as if you were about to purchase a ticket. Once you have chosen your numbers, click on Save Numbers and the app will record the numbers under your lucky numbers.
Luck Zone: The Luck Zone allows you to take a chance on a variety of Texas Lottery’s second chance games.
Location & Lotteries Available
As you may expect, the only location that is supported is within the state of Texas. While it is possible to make use of the app while you are outside of the state, it is pretty redundant if you are using the Create a Play or Retailer Locator features.
The lotteries available in the app are the usual culprits of the Texas Lottery. These include:
Texas Powerball Powerplay
Texas Mega Millions
Just the Jackpot Mega Millions
Texas Lotto Extra
Texas Two-Step
All or Nothing
Pick 3
Daily 4
Cash Five
Lone Star Lineup
User Interface & Usability
The app really does look rather good. The predominant colours that you will see are orange and blue, but they have been melded together really well, and the app is nice to look at. The fact that the app is smooth and allows you to move from one screen to the next with almost zero delays makes it even better.
One thing we are slightly unsure of is the navigation of the app. Sure, the app does have a hamburger menu on the right side of the screen that helps you get to wherever you need to go. However, the main navigation is done via a wheel of icons located on the home screen of the app. Swiping the wheel one way or the other will bring a new feature into focus at the top of the wheel and allow you to select it. It is rather fun and innovative, but we can see the appeal of it getting old pretty quickly.
Ads
As we expected, there are no ads present in the app aside from banners that boast the massive upcoming jackpots of particular draws. This is generally the case when it comes to apps developed by lottery operators, and we are glad to see that this standard has not changed with the Texas Lottery.
Texas Lottery App: Scam or Legit?
You have probably surmised this already—the Texas Lottery App is definitely not a scam. It is developed by the official Texas Lottery and can in no way cause you or your device any harm should you decide to use the app. In fact, this is probably one of the safest lottery apps that you could use.
Conclusion – Official Texas Lottery App Review
As mentioned earlier, we always love apps that are developed by official lottery operators. They generally have a great set of features—and the Official Texas Lottery App is no exception to this rule. While we do wish that the app would give users the ability to purchase lottery tickets like the sidekick apps of the best lottery sites do, the other features it does have still offer a great deal of convenience.
Therefore, if you are in Texas and are a fan of the various lotteries held by the operator, we recommend downloading this app and keeping it close at hand for the next time you want to see results or create a play that you can easily turn into a ticket at a kiosk later.
