Looks like BitLotto is facing competition from other online gambling services that use Bitcoin and interest in this is waning.

This is too bad, because seeing the absolute madness that PowerBall has right now, a Bitcoin lottery service with 99% payout and being provably fair should be something exploding by now.

One idea I had was that a party could use BitLotto to enable a raffle for a specific prize.  i.e., if this party (the raffle operator) wins a BitLotto, then that party uses the winnings to buy the prize that is then granted to the holder of the winning ticket.   For example, the raffle operator lists a prize of an all-inclusive trip (including airfare) for two to some winter resort -- if the BitLotto reaches some threshold (e.g., $2K USD worth of BTC at the time when the lotto draw occurs).  If BitLotto doesn't reach that threshold, then the operator just pays out cash instead I suppose.

This can be done today without BitLotto's knowledge or participation however the raffle players would be paying funds to the operator (who then buys the tickets from BitLotto) and would have to trust this raffle operator -- there is no transparency as far as how many tickets are sold, and there is the risk that the raffle operator fails to deliver the prize and winnings.

To enable this type of proxy winner within BitLotto, what is perhaps useful then is a way that individual players can place wagers to this special pool address but if that pool is the winner, the payout goes to the operator who set it up.  This is nearly identical to how a BitLotto affiliate works, except for how the full payout of winnings goes to the party that set it up, not just the commission.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this or have other suggestions for BitLotto?