Buying Official Lottery Tickets Online in Asia: Which Operators Sell Online

Where official online lottery sales exist in Asia

Online lottery is not one thing across Asia. In some countries the state operator runs its own sales channel and you can buy a ticket from your phone in a couple of minutes. In others the state has decided that lottery tickets may only change hands in person, and the online version simply does not exist.

The clearest split is between Japan, South Korea and Thailand on one side, and Vietnam and China on the other.

In Japan, the sports lottery known as toto is sold online through a set of partner bank and portal sites, all linked from the official sports lottery site. That is the main official online route for lottery-style games in the country. The Takarakuji official site also sells number-selection lotteries such as LOTO and Numbers online, with an account you register yourself⁶.

In South Korea, the national lottery operator runs an official electronic lottery sales site, and the same operator publishes draw results and outlet information through its main site³. Korean lottery rules also set a hard cap on how much one person can buy at a time.

In Thailand, the Government Lottery Office sells digital lottery tickets through the Paotang app. This is a state platform, not a reseller, and it has its own age rule.

Vietnam is the opposite case. Lottery tickets there are sold directly to customers or through the licensed agent system, and the rules state that lottery products may not be distributed by telephone, electronic devices, the internet or other telecom channels⁵. So there is no official online lottery purchase in Vietnam, whatever a website may claim.

China takes the same position. Online lottery sales are prohibited, and every platform claiming to accept lottery bets online is illegal⁷. Tickets are sold through physical stores only.

If you want the wider picture of how these state and licensed lotteries are structured, see Lotteries in Asia.

Japan: toto sales through partner banks

Japan's sports lottery comes in three product types: WINNER, toto and BIG². All three can be bought online, and the official site does not sell them to you directly. Instead it points you to partner sites, and you buy there.

The partner list is the same across the three products. For toto, the official page names Rakuten Bank, PayPay Bank, Yahoo! toto, Rakuten toto, SMBC toto, au PAY toto, Docomo SMTB Net Bank, Jibun Bank and Docomo Sports Lottery, nine partner sites in total⁸. BIG uses the same set⁹, and WINNER does too¹⁰.

What this means in practice: you pick a partner, register an account with that partner, and buy through it. The ticket is still an official sports lottery ticket. The partner is the shopfront, not a separate game.

The partner sites are not identical. Each has its own payment methods, its own account requirements and its own maintenance windows. If one does not suit you, another probably will.

Prices are low. A toto entry costs JPY 100¹¹. That is the base unit, and you can buy multiple entries.

Sales run 24 hours a day on the official site². In practice the partner sites have maintenance breaks, so a purchase at 3 a.m. may or may not go through depending on which partner you use.

If you specifically want the au Jibun Bank route, there is a full walkthrough on Buying toto Through au Jibun Bank and Partner Banks. For the membership side of the official site, see Club toto.

au Jibun Bank toto: eligibility, fees and purchase limits

The au Jibun Bank toto service is one of the nine partner routes, and it is a good example of how these services work because the details are published clearly.

You can buy WINNER, toto and BIG through it, from a smartphone or a PC, using bank account transfer¹². The games offered are exactly those three¹³.

Registration, buying tickets and receiving winnings through the service are all free. There are no fees for membership registration, for purchasing sports lottery tickets, or for receiving prize money¹³.

There are limits, and they matter if you plan to buy in volume:

• Each purchase operation is capped at JPY 50,000 per lottery type¹³
• You can set up advance reservations of up to 999 units per lottery type, and the same applies to the buy-more option when a carryover occurs¹³
• Payment is by au Jibun Bank account, and winnings go to your au Jibun Bank account¹⁴

So if you want to spend more than JPY 50,000 on one lottery type, you need to make more than one purchase. The cap is per operation, not per day.

There is a customer service line for the service: 0120-926-111, open 9:00 to 17:00, closed from December 31 to January 3¹².

One practical note on maintenance. Partner sites do go down for short windows, and the published times differ between banks. If a purchase fails, it is usually a maintenance window or a card issue rather than anything wrong with your account.

Games offered: BIG, WINNER, toto, and what is not sold

The three sports lottery types are WINNER, toto and BIG². Within those, there is a wider set of individual games.

The regular purchase service on the official site covers BIG, MEGA BIG, 100円BIG, BIG1000, mini BIG, toto, mini toto A組, mini toto B組 and totoGOAL3¹⁵. That list is useful because it shows the range: from the JPY 100 entry-level BIG up to the larger-unit versions, and from full toto down to the mini variants.

What is not sold through the au Jibun Bank toto service is DUNK. That service sells WINNER, toto and BIG only¹³. If DUNK is what you want, you need a different route.

For how these pool-style games actually work, including how the prize pool is split, see Sports Lotteries Explained.

The new basketball lottery DUNK: where it is sold and where it is not

DUNK is Japan's basketball sports lottery, and it is new. It went on sale on September 15, 2026, launched by the Japan Sport Council to mark the start of the B.LEAGUE season, with the first designated matches on September 26 and 27, 2026.

You can buy DUNK on the internet, at lottery sales offices, and at convenience stores that handle sports lottery. Some sales offices do not sell DUNK, so it is worth checking before you make a trip¹⁶.

Online, DUNK can be bought from the sports lottery official site and from partner sites¹⁶. The payment methods depend on where you buy:

The important difference is how winnings are paid. DUNK winnings are not automatically transferred to your account the way other online lottery winnings are. If you bought with cash at a lottery counter, Lawson, FamilyMart or Ministop, you collect at the shop, and the prize is not auto-transferred¹⁸.

For winnings of JPY 100,000 or less, you can collect cash on the spot at credit unions that handle the sports lottery and at some lottery sales offices where refunds are possible¹⁸. Convenience stores cannot pay out DUNK winnings at present¹⁸.

There is a dedicated page on this if you need the detail: Can DUNK Winnings Be Paid at Convenience Stores?.

How winnings are paid out

For most online lottery purchases in Japan, winnings arrive automatically. You do not claim them.

On the official site, WINNER prize money is transferred automatically to your account, and the same applies to internet toto purchases generally²⁰. That includes purchases made through partner sites, so wherever you buy online, the prize money still goes straight into your account²⁰. The cases where automatic transfer does not apply are purchases made in stores and at lottery counters²⁰.

The same pattern holds for the number-selection lotteries. LOTO6 and LOTO7 winnings are transferred automatically to the account you used to buy the ticket, when you bought through an internet banking institution's lottery sales site²². If you bought at a lottery stand or convenience store instead, you collect at a lottery stand or Mizuho Bank depending on the amount²².

For Numbers, the timing is published. Winnings of JPY 10,000 or more are, in principle, transferred automatically to your registered account within about one week from the next business day after the draw date²⁴. If you are holding smaller winnings under JPY 10,000 and the total passes JPY 10,000 during a period, those are transferred within about one week from the start of the transfer date for that period²⁴.

So the practical answer to "how long do winnings take" is: about a week after the draw, automatically, for the online games that support auto-transfer. For DUNK bought in cash, you collect in person instead.

If you want the general rules on claiming, including ID and where to go, see How to Claim a Lottery Prize in Asia.

Purchase blackout times and maintenance windows

Online lottery sales in Japan are close to always-on, but not perfectly so.

The Takarakuji official site says you can buy in principle 24 hours a day, all year round⁶. Number-selection lotteries and Kisekae Koo-chan can be bought 24 hours a day from the sale start time to the sale end time⁵.

There is a display quirk worth knowing. On the Takarakuji official site, purchases made between 18:20 and 8:00 the next morning on a draw day, or between 19:50 and 8:00 the next morning on a non-draw day, are shown as "issuance reserved" and change to "waiting for draw" after 8:00 the next morning⁵. Your purchase has gone through; the status label is just catching up.

For WINNER, online purchase through the official site with net payment or convenience store payment runs 24 hours a day²⁵. Buying at a physical lottery counter runs 8:00 to 23:00, and the hours differ by store²⁵.

Partner bank sites have their own maintenance windows, and these vary. Some banks publish short nightly breaks, others publish longer windows on specific dates. If a purchase will not complete, check the partner's own maintenance notice before assuming something is wrong.

The regular purchase service also lets you set a purchase period and frequency in advance, and reserve ordinary lottery tickets such as Jumbo before sales start⁶. That is useful if you want to buy without logging in every week.

Vietnam, Hong Kong and Thailand: official draws and how results are published

Vietnam has no official online lottery purchase route, but it does have a large and well-organized lottery system. Tickets are sold directly to customers or through the licensed agent system⁵. The lottery types include traditional lottery, number-selection lottery (manual and electronic), instant-result lottery such as scratch and peel cards, and other types provided by law⁵.

Because online, telephone and electronic distribution is prohibited, the practical way to buy in Vietnam is in person, through an agent or a direct seller. If you see a Vietnamese lottery being sold online, it is not an official channel.

Thailand's digital lottery runs through the Paotang app, which is a government platform. Buyers must be at least 20 years old⁴. One rule that catches people out: if you buy a ticket that does not win, and you want the physical ticket, you can collect it at the Government Lottery Office before the draw date of the next draw⁴.

Hong Kong's Mark Six is a separate case. It is a licensed draw with its own online channel through the Jockey Club, and the results and jackpot carryovers are published after each draw. In the Mid-Autumn Golden Treasure draw on September 26, 2026, there was no first prize winner, so about HKD 74 million in jackpot carryover moved to the October 3, 2026 draw.

For the printed-ticket style of lottery that Vietnam and Thailand both use, see Printed-Number Ticket Lotteries. For the Thai ticket price specifically, see How Much Does a Thai Government Lottery Ticket Cost?.

Age and residency rules for online lottery buyers

Age rules differ by country, and they apply to visitors as well as residents. There is no tourist exemption.

In Japan, you must be 19 or older to buy or receive sports lottery tickets. The law prohibits purchase or receipt by anyone under 19, and prizes cannot be paid to them². That applies to online purchases through the partner bank sites just as it does in a shop.

In South Korea, you can buy lottery tickets from January 1 of the year you turn 19. Minors under the Youth Protection Act may not buy lottery tickets at all³. Korean lottery purchases are also capped at KRW 100,000 per person per purchase³.

In Thailand, buyers using the Paotang app for digital lottery must be at least 20 years old⁴.

Residency is a separate question from age. The Japanese partner bank sites require you to hold an account with that bank or portal, which in practice means meeting that provider's own account-opening requirements. Visitors who cannot open a Japanese bank account will not be able to use the bank-linked routes, though other partner sites may have different requirements.

If you are planning around a specific country, the country guides cover the wider gambling picture: Can I Gamble in Japan?, Can I Gamble in South Korea?, Can I Gamble in Thailand?, Can I Gamble in Vietnam? and Can I Gamble in China?.

For spending caps across the region, including per-ticket and per-account limits, see Lottery Spending Limits.