By Bob Katzen

The State Lottery Commission voted to approve a five-year contract for the company that next summer in 2026 will launch an online version of the Lottery that allows people to place bets online.

It was a unanimous vote to authorize the Lottery’s Executive Director Mark William Bracken to enter into a deal for “a full-service iLottery platform and related services” with Aristocrat Interactive – a Malta-based company which had been recommended by the procurement team that reviewed five responses the Lottery got to its solicitation. Malta is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa.

“This is a huge milestone,” said Lottery Commissioner Meghan Liddy. “I’ve been around for a while. The years passed by quickly, but at times it did not seem like a quick process at all, and it was a very arduous process to get this done. Just huge congratulations to the team.”

Bracken said, “You know, we’re saying summer of ’26 … Summer, obviously, has the summer months. I would love it to be early summer of ’26 as opposed to late summer of ’26. We’d love to get in the marketplace, meet our players where they are, you know, hopefully bring on some new players that aren’t exposed or aren’t in love with the products of our traditional retail because, like we’ve said before, online Lottery really is a different product line.”

The House and Senate approved creation of an online Lottery authorization in the fiscal year 2025 budget that Gov. Maura Healey signed in 2024.