Here’s a player question that came our way, and you may have wondered about it, too.
The player asked: “Why don’t some retail locations accept debit cards for lottery purchases? Why doesn’t the lottery make them?”
The person is correct that in Iowa, it is legal for a customer to use cash or a cash equivalent (including gift cards, debit cards, and checks) to buy Iowa Lottery tickets. Any of those sources use available funds for the purchase, so they are permitted. But it is illegal in Iowa for lottery tickets to be purchased with a credit card.
While a lottery retail location can accept a check or debit card for the payment of lottery tickets, the retailer is not required to do so. Card transactions for retail purchases involve processing fees (sometimes called swipe fees) that the merchant has to pay. Some retail locations limit card transactions to likewise limit the processing fees that they have to pay.
That’s a business choice made by the location involved, not the Iowa Lottery. We don’t enter into that decision.
Hi, Jan. It appears from your question that you're asking about the top prizes in our games. One of the biggest determinants for the top prize level in a lottery game is population. And with Iowa being a fairly small state, we work hard to produce prize structures with larger prizes in them. We hope to one day design a scratch game with a $1 million top prize. But our players also have let us know through the years that they want more chances to win, so that's a factor that also goes into our game-planning process.
Posted by: Mary Neubauer | December 11, 2023 at 11:16 AM
why doesn't Iowa lottery have Million-doll scratch off tickets?
Posted by: Jan Knight | December 10, 2023 at 05:34 PM