s the on-screen map is panned and zoomed with common gestures; additional lottery retailers are found and displayed in real-time. Touching a retailer reveals more information about the store's location and services, and one button-press displays driving directions to the retailer.
What makes Lottery Places unique is its ability to find retailers across state and country borders, all in one app. Before today lottery players would have to visit individual government lottery websites, each of which uses a different and sometimes confusing method of finding lottery retailers, and only in one state or country at a time.
In the United States alone, the Lottery Places app replaces the need to visit 45 separate government lottery websites and apps to find lottery retailers throughout the country.
Best of all, the app is completely free, with no time trials, pro-level versions or in-app purchases required. All of the features are available to everyone for free.
"Lottery Places solves a real problem that everyone experiences at one time or another: how to find a nearby store that sells lottery tickets," explained Todd Northrop, creator of Lottery Places.
"Whether you're at home, at work, traveling, or on vacation, open up Lottery Places and instantly see all the closest lottery retailers," Northrop said. "Because the app is free to use forever and it is available on all three major mobile platforms, it truly is an essential app that no lottery player -- indeed no mobile user -- should be without."
Lottery Places launched today on all three major mobile platforms: iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone. And because the Windows Phone app is actually a Windows universal app, it also works on all desktops, laptops, and tablets running Windows 8 or higher.
In addition to finding lottery retailers near your current location, Lottery Places can also locate retailers in any other location using the search feature. Just type a full or partial address and the app will pinpoint the location on the map and instantly locate the nearest lottery retailers. Driving directions can be displayed either from your current GPS location or the search location you entered.
"If you know you're making a stopover you can see if the airport has a lottery retailer," Northrop suggested. "Or maybe you're visiting a friend and you want to check for nearby store locations. In practically any scenario, Lottery Places can find the nearest lottery retailers."
Advanced map features, such a traffic reports and satellite views, are included to help determine an ideal lottery retailer to visit.
Also included in the app is the ability to report any problems that might be found with particular retailers. For example, if the phone number is listed incorrectly on a retailer, the app user can press the Report Error button to instantly send a note directly to the app's developers to fix the problem.
