Summer's over and it's time to get back to making some money. As promised this morning, we got a new first look at an idea with tremendous growth potential - one we think investors should seriously have a good look at. The lottery is big business, and it should come as no surprise the most frequently searched word on Google is "Powerball". In 2016 an estimated 97.3 million Americans spent over $70 billion on lottery tickets. To put that number in perspective, that's more money than Americans spent on books, music, video games and sporting events combined. As an industry, between 2009 and 2016 the gross sale of lottery tickets grew 28%, and from 2015 to 2016 the sector showed a 9% growth in total sales. As lottery ticket sales continue to grow, so too do the size of the jackpots. Just a few weeks ago, a Massachusetts woman won a $759 million Powerball jackpot. The largest jackpot in U.S. history was claimed in January 2016 - $1.5 billion. However, in order to purchase those lottery tickets, each customer has to go to a store and stand in line - sometimes a very long line in order to get their chance at millions. Further, only 44 states in the US currently participate in the lottery, so if you happen to live in a non-lottery state, there is the added impediment of buying a ticket long distance. Moreover, the actual purchasing process is clearly outdated and inconvenient, as credit and debit cards are generally not accepted. Customers have to travel to a location to buy tickets rather than buying online and there is no systematic notification system letting you know you won - until now. Based in Los Angeles, CA., LottoGopher Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: LTTGF) (CSE: LOTO) is a lottery messenger service that lets customers easily purchase and manage their state lottery tickets online using a debit or credit card. LottoGopher makes it simple for users to order and keep track of their tickets and winnings. The site allows for single ticket play, group or pool play, and it also allows you to create and join online public and private groups to pool winnings from California lotteries, including MEGA Millions, Powerball and/or Super Lotto Plus. LottoGopher's platform is very similar to that of so many other popular recurring revenue generating subscriptions services, but it's the only one in the U.S. that has found a way to leverage that of the multi-billion dollar lottery business. Customers can create an account to join for a single day, a month, or even a year. The cost of tickets is the same that you would pay at a store, but online purchases can be made through the website with credit or debit cards. Then, when a jackpot is announced, customer accounts are updated with the information and winning notifications are sent accordingly. You can even apply winnings toward the purchase of new tickets. Sounds great, but what about compliance, you may ask - why hasn't anyone taken the lottery system online before? According to an article in Forbes, "The Department of Justice years ago took the position that the federal Wire Act of 1961 prohibited all sorts of online gambling even though the law itself seemed to only apply to sports betting. As a result, the states felt they could not conduct even in-state lottery transactions via the Internet because of the possibility that transmissions over the Internet during these transactions might cross state lines. The New York state lottery felt the Justice Department's criminal division might go after it if the New York lottery sold tickets online to residents of New York and the Internet packets transmitting lottery information went through, say, New Jersey for a second." Federal regulations have eased over the years, but lottery systems, which are individually regulated by states, have been slow to adapt and change.However, as we move to a cashless society, and credit cards are used to buy everything from Picasso paintings to celebrity encounters, it seems strange the winner of the next big lottery drawing will likely purchase a paper ticket, in person, with cash. Like it or not, the lottery business is gambling - and thus regulated by state law - so regulations in each state determine whether lottery tickets can be purchased with plastic or not. In Connecticut, for example, you can't buy lottery tickets with a credit card, but you can use a gift card or debit card.  Archaic, I know. But, this is what makes LottoGopher's platform so interesting. As a subscription service, you are buying an option to participate rather than directly buying a lottery ticket.  LottoGopher has invested in extensive legal review to determine their platform is compliant with all Federal laws and regulations, and is working with individual states to be lottery law compliant. Meaning, the subscription service is likely to work its way across the country - making it available to residents of states other than California. To help scale and maximize efficiencies, the company has partnered with LottoLand, a British company ranked as one of the 30 fastest growing companies in the UK, and the second ranked gaming company in Europe in the Financial Times' FT1000 report. With this strategic partnership, LottoLand provides LottoGopher with all of the necessary parts of the lottery value chain: product development, technology, online channel management and internal IT development. LottoLand saw an 820% revenue growth in the three years between 2012 and 2015, and last year had over 300 million euros ($355.8 million USD) in sales. When investing in any small or micro cap stock, it's usually always about management. Well, LottoGopher's Board of Directors includes Lloyd Lemon (former Head of Legal for TD Waterhouse) and now general legal for LottoLand, as well as Kevin Harrington - one of the original Sharks on Shark Tank - and the attributed inventor of the "infomercial". The management team is led by LottoGopher's President and CEO, James Morel, who has guided multiple companies to extraordinary success. He founded 1-800 POSTCARDS, which was subsequently recognized by Inc. 5000 as one of the fastest-growing private companies in 2010. While LottoGopher is currently only available to California residents, the company has plans to expand to 22 of the 44 states that currently participate in lottery programs. The company projects member growth to reach 500,000 by 2020 with member subscription revenues of $50 million. These numbers are based on key metrics that show 7% of all site visitors provided an email address, 43% of those email sign-ups became members who placed orders, and 12% of freemium plan members converted to paid membership plan subscriptions. People are always going to buy lottery tickets - it's just human nature. So it makes sense as the Internet continues to change consumer behavior, companies will adapt and change to meet demand. And while it's tricky to advocate for gambling, particularly given the small odds of winning big, taking a close look at the numbers making up the lottery business can make a compelling argument for investment in a sector that is likely to continue to get lot of attention in the years ahead. To start the week back from a summer hiatus, consider this quote from Chris Parry writing about LottoGopher... "I've bought in. I hold LottoGopher stock because I think this is a good deal, and I'm writing this for the same reason. Maybe the market will hate it. Maybe it'll struggle to get the story out. Maybe lotteries are too weird for investors. I don't know, but I know I like how this deal came together, I like the guys running the show, and the only guy to have ever lost money running a gambling operation is Donald Trump." It's clearly worth the speculation because it's not often we come across an idea that's as potentially disruptive as this one. How many times have we looked back over the last 20 years on an investing idea and said, "That was a no brainer." While hindsight is 20/20, that's not how we make money in the markets. We make money in the markets by identifying companies that make sense based on where technology and the future of the consumer are headed. It sure seems LottoGopher Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: LTTGF) (CSE: LOTO) has all of the makings of a big homerun someday - especially for a still relatively unknown penny stock.