Editorial Guidelines at PlayiLottery

Story identification

The ideas for PlayiLottery news stories are based on our original reporting and research, as well as information released directly from states, commissions, oversight committees, and operators. If another outlet reports information from what it claims to be its original reporting, PlayiLottery will not publish a story on the topic until it can independently corroborate the information.

Research and information-gathering

When it comes to research for our news content, PlayiLottery relies primarily on analysis, data, and insight provided by neutral parties, such as state governments and agencies or independent research firms. If we use data presented by a stakeholder, such as survey results from an organization pushing to legalize iLottery in a certain state, we will clearly articulate where the information came from and why it may need to be taken with a grain of salt.

Vetting sources, interviews

PlayiLottery relies mainly on experts and stakeholders when it comes to our human sources. Experts are, most often, neutral observers who can provide valuable insight based on their years of experience in a certain field. But we don’t just take their word for it. We vet expert sources and essentially do our own background checks to make sure their perspectives are ones we want to pass along to our readers. Stakeholders, meanwhile, have a vested interest in the topic at hand. They are still valuable sources for interviews. However, they have a bias, so it’s vital to at least give stakeholders from the other side (or other sides) of the topic an opportunity to speak to us before we publish editorial content on that topic.

Writing

Every single staff member in the PlayiLottery news team has worked at a professional news organization. Our writing reflects that experience. We produce clean copy with accurate grammar, spelling, and punctuation. We have our own style guide that is modeled after the Associated Press style guide, used by the vast majority of major outlets across the US. We strive to write straight to the point with the simple, conversational language you’d hear among friends.

Fact-checking

Each news story published on PlayiLottery undergoes two rounds of fact-checking: one by the writer and one by Chris Imperiale, the site’s managing editor, who reads every story before it is published.

Editor review and publish

In addition to fact-checking each story, the managing editor ensures the content meets PlayiLottery‘s standards for clarity, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and style. The managing editor also makes sure each story’s hyperlinks go to the correct internal and external pages so that we’re not sending you on a wild goose chase.

Corrections, if necessary

Please write to [email protected] if you believe we need to correct any published content. For simple grammar, style, or linking issues, we will correct the story and republish it. In the rare and unfortunate case that something we report on is inaccurate or outdated, we will add an editor’s note to the story noting that the original version had incorrect information and when we fixed the issue.

Deciding upon topics

Of course, before we do any writing. we first have to decide that a topic is worthy of inclusion on our site. As we make that decision, we are, in essence, asking one fundamental question: would an online lottery player find information on that topic useful? If our answer is yes, we create the page. If not, we don’t.

How do we know whether or not a player would want that information? It’s simple: we are immersed in the industry, and we are online lottery players ourselves.

Expert writer creates the first draft

Editing

Each draft goes through multiple rounds of edits and revisions. Copyeditors and the PlayiLottery Content Manager look over the content to make sure that everything is clear, factually correct, and grammatically perfect. At times, the writer is asked to go back and rewrite sections until it meets our standards.

Once we put the content on a webpage, technical experts look over the page to ensure a smooth user experience.

Regular updating

Once a page is published on our site, it is never considered done. We regularly check on the content to make sure that all the information is still up-to-date. As the industry shifts, or new information comes out, we make sure to reflect that on the page.