What’s That I Hear About Lottery Vending Machines?

Here’s an update so you’ll have the same info. as the political insiders.
 
The Iowa Lottery and the vending machines it uses to sell tickets are under discussion at the Iowa Capitol. Legislation is making its way through the process that would change state law in terms of the type of vending equipment the lottery can use. Modern technology is the reason the change is needed.         

Lottery pull-tab tickets in Iowa are sold exclusively through vending machines, while vending machines for instant-scratch games, the lottery’s leading sales product, are used in about 10 percent of lottery retail locations. 

The vending machines that the Iowa Lottery currently has in the field are 10 years old and need to be replaced. Like any mechanical device, they’ll only last so long, and some parts for the machines are no longer being manufactured. On the plus side, by purchasing the machines rather than entering into a traditional six-year lease agreement, the lottery was able to significantly extend the number of years it’s had the equipment in operation, achieving cost savings during that time.

With advances in technology, self-service equipment today now has touch screens, not push buttons. Everything from beverage dispensers and snack machines to airline check-in kiosks, ATMs, movie-rental stations and – yes, lottery vending machines – feature touch-screens that customers use to complete their transactions.

But touch-screen equipment creates a complication with state law applying to the lottery. Vending machines with a touch screen technically meet the legal definition of a monitor vending machine, which was known as TouchPlay and has been banned here in Iowa for a decade. 

The lottery is aware of the monitor vending machine prohibition and is not trying to change it. The bill we have introduced would simply add language to state law to make it clear that it is legal for the lottery to use self-service kiosks (vending machines), even if they have touch screens.

The proceeds for state causes that the lottery generates by using vending machines are significant, and we want to do our best to continue providing that revenue. 

What do the numbers look like? Lottery tickets are currently sold in about 2,400 retail locations in Iowa, with scratch-ticket vending machines used in about 260 of those places and pull-tab vending machines installed in about 800 locations. We estimate that our players buy about $31 million in lottery tickets from vending machines each year.

Our vending-machine bill was passed in a legislative committee yesterday, meaning it’s now on the list of bills up for debate in the Iowa House of Representatives.

If our bill makes it through the legislative process and is signed into law, you could see new touch-screen lottery vending equipment in use by late this fall here in Iowa.

Comments

[Mary Neubauer]

Hi, Diane. Thank you for letting us know that. Yes, that can be fixed! I will reach out to the regional office that handles that retail account and ask them to follow up on that. I appreciate the head's up!

[Diane De Geeter]

I recently used the lottery machine at I-80 EXIT 201 Pilot store, and the label for Love Stinks, and Red Ball 7, is reversed. If you hit Love Stinks, you get the Red Ball 7, can this be fixed??