Giantlottos

Giantlottos NZ Review (2023)

You could say GiantLottos is like a reliable representative who opens selected doors to an exciting world of lottery for gamblers who wish to try their luck beyond the shores of their country of residence.

With its roots going back to 2007, GiantLottos has established a global network of ticket holders which banks on the online operator’s “proxy service” to break down barriers for those engaging with overseas lotto sites. That means individuals are giving GiantLottos the thumbs up to not only buy lottery tickets on their behalf, but also to claim any winnings that may result from them.

All of that adds up to GiantLottos offering Aotearoa New Zealand gamblers an opportunity to rise to the giddy heights of participating in lottery sites that put up jaw-dropping jackpot prizes, ranging from tens to hundreds of millions of Kiwi dollars.

Go to GiantLottos’ landing page to find that in July 2022 a United Kingdom ticket holder had won £195 million (approximately $NZ388.7 million) in a EuroMillions Superdraw. Its lottery news site is loaded with multi-millionaire stories that’ll leave many Kiwi players dizzy with just their headlines.

What earns GiantLottos the tag of “lotto concierge” is that it has built a reputation as a middle agent that buys actual lottery tickets from numbers that New Zealanders select, before paying out any windfalls that arise from them. To put that in perspective, predominantly other online sites tend to provide a platform for players to wager on the outcome of the lottery draw, based on picking shadow numbers, to earn the online lotto provider’s prizes.

Like any gambling activities in New Zealand, online lottos are legal provided they aren’t run within the country, in defiance of the current laws of the NZ Lotteries Commission. Section 238 of the Gambling Act 2003 defines the functions of the NZ Lotteries Commission which, by default, endorses online lotto as a legal form of entertainment and gambling for Kiwis.

Despite our dedicated review team coming across the odd disgruntled player on the internet, we have no reason to doubt GiantLottos’ legitimacy as a trustworthy site. Its offices are reportedly based in Cyprus. Because it’s not an online casino, the company isn’t required to procure a gambling licence.

A company specialising in the iGaming industry, Neezy Technologies Limited, operates the online site. It uses lightweight iFrame and Bcrypt encryption technologies to ensure Kiwi gamblers are protected and have a seamless gaming experience.

Our review team is turning over every rock Kiwis may face in selecting which online lotto site they would like to buy their overseas tickets from or gamble on to break the monotony of playing New Zealand’s own national Lotto and related games.

Lotto is, after all, played twice a week so religiously in New Zealand that many Kiwis don’t even consider it gambling. Traditionally, many families used to watch the TV to see if their lucky numbers would roll out at 8pm. Some still do now.

How to play on GiantLottos’ site

For those who are familiar with online casino or sportsbook sites, this will feel like a stroll across a park. As for newcomers, don’t fret. You’ll need to open a member’s account.

Simply click on the “Sign Up” button before filling out basic information such as name, email address, and that you live in New Zealand. GiantLottos states this snappy exercise ensures it can process your winnings and speed up your payout.

Check your inbox for a GiantLottos notification, before clicking the link to verify your email address. If you can’t see any email from the online lottery site in your inbox, then check your junk or spam folder. Kiwis must not forget to claim their free bonuses if they have registered via one of several GiantLottos’ promotions.

What’s on GiantLottos’ menu?

When we visited the GiantLottos site, it had listed 14 different online lotto draws that New Zealand gamblers could try their luck on. That’s not the biggest count among online lottery sites, but we believe it’s a great option, especially for newcomers.

Beginners venturing through the iGaming lounge of GiantLottos are battling bouts of nerves anyway, so why heighten that with too many choices? Fewer is more, we feel, because the site has gone out of its way to cherry pick lotteries, including some of the biggest prize-money ones as well as popular draws.

High-roller types may appreciate the smaller muster, too. Countdown digital clocks below each lottery informs Kiwis how much time they have left to be in it to win. Despite digging deep, we couldn’t establish if Germany’s favourite, Lotto 6aus49 has any Australian connection or if it's just an acronym.

For a detailed breakdown of what each lottery entails, go to GiantLottos’ excellent FAQs for “International Lottery Games” question for individual profiles.

Here are the lotteries in alphabetic order:

• Canada Lotto 649
• Cash4Life (US multi-state)
• EuroJackpot
• EuroMillions
• France Lotto
• Irish Daily Million
• Irish Lotto
• Lotto 6aus49 (German)
• Mega Millions (USA)
• Mega-Sena (Brazil)
• SuperEna Lotto (Italy)
• UK National Lottery
• USA Powerball
• Viking Lotto (multinational European draw)

GiantLottos tends to introduce newer games throughout the year, but when we visited its site we were greeted with a selection of Spanish raffles as a side dish.

Primarily, the annual raffles that GiantLottos buys in Barcelona aren’t lotteries because you will buy tickets with the number combinations already worked out for you. The GiantLottos site reveals it has four types of Spanish fare amid better odds of claiming a win and bumper jackpots.

• Loteria Nacional Extra: This raffle is drawn on every first or second Saturday of a month, offering up to $NZ239 million in prize money. All New Zealand ticket holders need to do is pick a “pre-populated” five-digit combination before buying up to 10 shares in that ticket. The monthly draw offers Kiwis 37,151 winning combinations. It boasts three main winning tiers as well as some special, smaller prizes. With no rollovers, the raffle comes with an assurance of must winners every draw day.
• El Gordo de Navidad Raffle: This is Spain’s $NZ3.95 billion-dollar Christmas Lottery. It’s drawn on December 22 every year. The process for selecting tickets is no different to the Loteria Nacional Extra outlined above. The marquee jackpot prize totals $NZ6.85 million. Although no rollovers are required with guaranteed winners, the El Gordo de Navidad Raffle offers five main prize-money levels with additional prizes up for grabs at each different tier.
• Loteria del Nino Raffle: If Christmas is on the agenda, then it’s only fair to assume the Spaniards will have a raffle to tickle Kiwis’ taste buds in anticipation of a new year. The organisers don’t disappoint with this Spanish New Year Lottery Raffle offering a jackpot total of a shade more than $NZ1 billion to herald in the new year. The draw is held on January 6 and the process as well as the number of winning combinations are the same. The New Year raffle has three main tiers of prizes and additional smaller ones.
• El Gordo de Verano: Roll on a sizzling summer with what makes the annual raffles calendar a well-orchestrated fiesta. Who cares if it’s peak winter in New Zealand because that kind of windfall will warm the cockles. This Summer Lottery segment comes at a tune of $NZ241 million and is drawn on the first Saturday of July. Follow the routine as above raffles for a one-in-three chance of collecting a prize. Overall, Kiwis will find it comes with 10 guaranteed jackpot prizes and a total of 378,000 individual prizes up for grabs. Again, no rollovers are required.

Ways to play on GiantLottos

New Zealanders can rest assured that GiantLottos isn’t just a site where they can go into the draws of a selection of global lotteries. The online lottery site offers a five-pronged approach to satisfy a variety of Kiwis’ tastes.

GiantLottos has lotteries, bundles, syndicates, and Spanish raffles. Here’s a compact breakdown of the different ways Kiwi players can consider before deciding what suits their budget and tastes (in alphabetic order):

• Bulk purchase: This option offers New Zealanders the chance to either buy tickets for 5, 10, or 20 draws in advance. Alternatively, they may wish to avoid the disappointment of missing out on a draw by taking advantage of the bulk purchase offer to buy tickets 3, 6, or 12 months in advance, akin to buying pre-season tickets to a rugby or soccer competition. It’s just a click away.
• Bundle play: Not interested in committing to the long-term bulk purchase? No problems. GiantLottos’ bundle play option offers you a four-week window to chew on draws at digestible bites. Here, Kiwis can opt for the online lotto site’s pre-selected four-draw option, then decide if they wish to play in advance to 2, 3, or 4 weeks.
• Single play: Now, this is what most Kiwi beginners will gravitate towards because it’s uncomplicated and something they are accustomed to. If one of the 14 lotteries on the site takes your fancy, buy a one-off ticket for the impending draw.
• Subscriptions: When you love something, you engage with it with some consistency. No different to enjoying reading one’s favourite magazine, GiantLottos paves the way for New Zealand lottery lovers to subscribe to its monthly purchase of tickets. It’s automatic and pops up as a casual reminder when Kiwis become too caught up in their hectic schedules.
• Syndicates: For those who grapple with jangled nerves and don’t wish to enter the digital platform on their own, the syndicate option is godsend. That enables Kiwi players to buy tickets at a fraction of the cost. Not too dissimilar to horse-racing syndicates, this alternative offers New Zealanders the chance to split the cost of tickets with a group of other online players who harbour a similar desire. Conversely, that means sharing any winnings, too. A syndicate comprises 30 to 50 tickets. They are then divided into 10 shares for a sum of between 300 to 500 shares a draw. This, again, will appeal to beginners and should be kind to their pockets. It’ll gift them time to become familiar with online lotteries before mustering confidence to go it alone.

Customer support

No matter how good Kiwis become at tackling iGaming platforms, it’s just a matter of time before they have questions that aren’t obvious on the provider’s website. Having exhausted all the obvious avenues to resolve any issues, New Zealand gamblers want the assurance of reaching someone at the other end to clarify matters.

GiantLottos delivers several avenues to tie up any loose ends Kiwi players may believe they have to enjoy a seamless experience. Our advice is to go to the site’s elaborate FAQs before going for other options.

The big plus is GiantLottos provides a phone service, albeit a British one, that is available only from 9am to 5pm at Greenwich Mean Time, considering New Zealand is 12 hours ahead. That means it suits those who prefer to buy their tickets after a work day, although the online lottery site will do well to offer Kiwi customers an 0800 free-phone line.

The big minus for us is the part-time service of an around-the-clock live-chat widget tucked at the bottom right corner of the landing page. If anything, it isn’t really a live-chat widget. GiantLottos must realise smartly that offering customers instant peace of mind isn’t asking them to fill out details on another email window.

Emails:

• Account queries — accounts@giantlottos.com
• General queries — info@giantlottos.com
• Payment queries — transactions@giantlottos.com

These emails come with the assurance of a within one-hour response time, if filed during the stipulated 9am to 5pm GMT window.

FAQs: This frequently-asked-questions page link is delightfully thorough. It covers many facets, including additional support, banking, fine print, getting started, lottery bonuses, and my account.

Telephone: +44 20-87207448. This service also comes within the Northern Hemisphere (GMT) working-hour window. GiantLottos assures that its support crew will make the utmost effort to respond within an hour. We advise Kiwi gamblers to keep an eye on the clock because the overseas toll-call charges will hit them in the pocket if the discussion drags on.

Payment Methods

It’s all well to highlight the good, bad, and ugly features of an online lottery site, but nothing leaves a sour taste in the mouths of New Zealand players more than payment methods that hang them out to dry.

GiantLottos’ “banking page” on the mustard strip at the foot of its site isn’t of much help because it wants Kiwis to register before divulging more information about its payment gateways. It’s another story with the FAQs. Our advice is to hit the FAQs link before navigating to the “Winnings and Withdrawals” section.

Perhaps this explains why some internet reviewers feel GiantLottos needs to upgrade its outdated website. That is not to denounce its excellent FAQs. All the online lottery site needs to do is to make it easier for users to navigate.

Our reviewers agree that such information should be readily available to newcomers and beginners without having to register. Regardless of how easy it may be to sign up, it becomes a pointless exercise and a waste of your time to discover down the process that the payment providers aren’t what you’re after.

Either way, we can reveal to our Kiwi followers that GiantLottos subscribe to payment providers who are generally familiar with New Zealanders. Safety and security aren’t compromised because the online lottery site complies with the high standards of the payment card industry (PCI) to keep sensitive data away from prying eyes.

Here are the depositing methods in alphabetic order:

• Bank-to-bank transfer: For those New Zealand lottery ticket buyers who prefer the old ways, there’s no need to change. GiantLottos provides several bank accounts for direct online transfers. That requires Kiwis to simply login to their GiantLottos before navigating their way to click on the “bank-to-bank” section within the Load Credit page. Use the unique reference number above the bank account details before making your transfer. On completion of the transaction, send your proof of payment to accounts@giantlottos.com for approval. You’ll find the deposit in your GiantLottos playing account between 8am to 5pm GMT on a working day. However, this depositing method requires patience as it can take up to 72 hours to process. The benefit is receiving confirmation on Saturdays, NZ time.
• Cheques or postal orders: Again, it let us scratching our heads why GiantLottos didn’t simply disclose some relevant details but, on the bright side, it advises Kiwis to email its professional support crew info@giantlottos.com for more precise information on its bank addresses and payee data relevant to New Zealand as well as your preferred currency.
• Debit or credit cards: That means Kiwi lottery players can make the most of MasterCard and Visa cards. It goes without saying that this will be the most preferred payment gateway for New Zealanders.
• Token payment: Even the best-laid plans can go awry. GiantLottos knows that, so it has come up with its JustPay token option for those who may find themselves grappling with traditional debit/credit methods. The JustPay option is ideal because it accepts MasterCard and Visa without any hiccups.

Withdrawals demand even smoother transfers because Kiwi winners are no different to other global lottery ticket holders in combating nerves to enjoy the thrill of finding money in their preferred personal accounts.

GiantLottos customer service team will go out of its way to ensure your withdrawal request is processed within 24 hours. All they want New Zealand winners to do is to lodge their request to its accounts department via accounts@giantlottos.com.

Its advice is to accumulate a smaller sum of wins into a bigger one before trying to withdraw. We believe it’s sound advice because GiantLottos levies a 5% agent’s fee on any withdrawals that are more than $NZ2,000, not to mention the $NZ50 fees your preferred payment method will slap on top of that. Please note we had calculated the fees on the exchange rate at the time of writing, so it may differ when you’re reading this.

Withdrawals will be paid to Kiwis within five days of their request and subject to when the lottery operator releases the windfall. Because GiantLottos uses accredited money transferring companies only, you may be required to have handy certified copies of your ID to counter any fraud. The proof of address in the form of utility bills must not be older than three months. That may be frustrating to Kiwi players, but we’re in GiantLottos’ corner here to protect your interests.

No doubt, should you strike a jackpot, tier 2 or 3 prize, the online operator’s legal representatives will come into play, either liaising with you or with your legal advisors. GiantLottos abides by anti-money laundering laws and regulations.

Boasting a 100% payout record on its site, the online operator makes payments via international bank transfer, Neteller, or Skrill. However, we expect every reputable site that we review to pay out every time a Kiwi wins.

Finally, not all lottery draws are taxed. Jackpot windfalls from Mega Millions and USA Powerball come under the country’s tax regime while EuroMillions and the UK National Lottery don’t. Our tip is to check out the conditions before committing to a lottery because some pay out in a lump sum while others opt to pay out smaller sums, spread over several years.

GiantLottos’ App/Mobile Status

If GiantLottos has a native download app, we certainly couldn’t find any evidence of that. However, it is optimised for Androids and iOS mobile devices.

That means New Zealanders can access its services on their mobile devices via the window browser for maximum use.