ialottery blog

What To Do If The Ticket You're Trying To Buy Doesn’t Print Or Dispense

We got an email this week from a player who did exactly what we would suggest if you’re ever trying to buy a ticket and it doesn’t print from the lottery terminal or dispense from a self-service kiosk.

The player reached out to us right away and was able to provide details about the time and date he'd been at the store involved. We, in turn, were able to research what happened and help the player and the store.

In that particular instance, the player tried to buy a scratch ticket from a lottery self-service kiosk and the ticket didn’t dispense. He ultimately bought other tickets from the machine but emailed us the same day to ask about the ticket he hadn’t been able to purchase. We sent a service technician to check the machine and it turned out that the ticket had gotten hung up inside the kiosk.

In a few other instances, players were trying to buy tickets from a lottery terminal when the machine ran out of paper. In those instances, the players and/or the retail location reached out to us and we were able to research what happened and help provide a resolution.  

While the lottery’s equipment has a high reliability record, any mechanical device can occasionally have a jam or other temporary complication. If you encounter an experience like that, you certainly can talk to employees at the business where the machine is in use to see if they can resolve the issue.

In addition, the retailer or you as the player can reach out to us at the Iowa Lottery for our help in researching what happened. Making contact quickly is key so you’ll clearly remember the details involved.

Here is the Iowa Lottery’s contact information: Our email address is [email protected] and our telephone number is 515-725-7900. You also are welcome to reach out to us on our social media pages.

In many instances, a member of the lottery’s Security Department will be involved in reviewing what occurred and helping to find an answer.

My Ticket Is Damaged … Can It Still Be Cashed?

A player contacted us last night with a question that comes up every once in a while about tickets that have been damaged. Specifically, can a ticket still be checked or cashed if the code on it is damaged? Many times, yes. But there are limits.

The player said the barcode on his scratch ticket that’s normally scanned to check the results had gotten stuck on some tape and torn off. He wondered if the results of the ticket could still be checked.

Often there is a way for that to happen.

Each lottery ticket has identifying numbers on it that can manually be entered into a lottery terminal to check the results of the ticket.

It’s not something you as a player can do using a self-service kiosk or self-checker in a store or the lottery's mobile app on your smartphone – the ticket code is required in those instances. But if the code can’t be read and the rest of the ticket is still in good condition, the clerk at a lottery terminal in a retail location or a staffer at one of our lottery offices can manually key in the identifying numbers from the ticket to check its results.

If the clerk at your local store doesn’t know how to do that, they can always call the Iowa Lottery’s retail hotline for help. Instructions for how to send us the ticket are here on our website.

But if a ticket is too badly damaged, not even we’ll be able to determine its results. Through the years, we’ve seen tickets that had disintegrated into tiny pieces after mistakenly being put through the wash. Others had been torn, and the player involved had only a small section of the ticket without any identifying numbers on it.

We’ll always do our best to help, but as is the case with any paper product, lottery tickets can be damaged. It’s important to keep your tickets in as good of shape as possible so you can claim any prize you’ve won!

Most Iowa Lottery Self-Service Kiosks Will Now Have Debit Card Readers

Here’s an update that should mean more convenience for you as a player: The Iowa Lottery is deploying new self-service kiosks that include debit card readers.

We’ve had touch-screen kiosks in the field since 2017, but until now, the machines have only accepted cash as payment. The kiosks are in the lottery’s busiest locations to give players there another option for making lottery purchases. The machines dispense tickets in scratch games, lotto games and InstaPlay games.

During the next handful of weeks, most lottery self-service kiosks in Iowa will be replaced with new machines that include a debit card reader. (There are some machines that won’t be retrofitted due to the age of those devices. You can still use those kiosks, you’ll just need to have cash when buying tickets at them.)

The first of the new kiosks have been installed this week in the Des Moines area. The new machines accept cash, debit cards and gift cards, but not credit cards. It’s illegal in Iowa for lottery tickets to be purchased with credit.

Below are some Q-and-As to help answer questions about the card readers on the new kiosks.

Q: Can the card readers on lottery self-service kiosks accept credit cards?

A: No. It’s illegal in Iowa for lottery products to be purchased with credit. Credit blocking is in place to prevent the kiosks from accepting a credit card for a lottery purchase.

Q: Can the lottery self-service kiosks accept gift cards and debit cards?

A: Yes, but as is the case with any electronic payment system, the kiosks may not accept all cards due to the specific computer processing involved in that transaction.

If your gift card or debit card can’t be read by the lottery kiosk, you’re welcome to contact the financial institution that issued your card. Or, you can use a different form of payment at the kiosk.

Q: Can the lottery self-service kiosks accept mobile wallet payments like Apple Pay and Google Pay?

A: In many instances, yes.

Electronic wallet apps including Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay use wireless communications between the user’s mobile device and the self-service kiosk to access the card information stored in the user’s mobile wallet. If you’ve stored a debit card in your mobile wallet and selected that card for the transaction on the lottery kiosk, the transaction should complete successfully. But if you’ve selected a credit card by default in your mobile wallet, the transaction will fail.

If your mobile wallet app does not work at the lottery kiosk, you’re welcome to use a different form of payment.

The Look Of The Iowa Lottery In Your Local Store Will Change Next Year

One of the biggest projects we undertake here at the Iowa Lottery reached an important milestone today, and it means that the look of the Iowa Lottery will get an update next year.

The lottery itself won’t change, and we’ll still have the products you expect on the market. But much of the equipment now used here in our state to sell and cash lottery tickets will be replaced.

The project was discussed during today’s meeting of the Iowa Lottery Board, a public meeting held via teleconference due to the ongoing public health emergency. The Board voted 5-0 to allow the lottery to proceed with contract negotiations for a new statewide gaming system with Scientific Games International (SGI), a company based near Atlanta. The company was selected following a public and months-long competitive bid process.

Like any technology, lottery equipment needs to be replaced over time. Most of the lottery equipment now in the field in Iowa has been in use since 2011.               

SGI also supplies the Iowa Lottery’s current gaming system, and the lottery’s contract for it expires in July 2021. So during the next 15 months, new equipment for Iowa will be manufactured, and then our existing system will be changed out for a new version.

We’ll flip the switch to Iowa’s new lottery gaming system on July 11, 2021. Like our current system, it will link all 2,400 retail locations in Iowa where lottery tickets are sold. The gaming system includes a central communications backbone as well as the lottery terminals, self-checkers, self-service kiosks, and lighted jackpot signs in the local businesses where you buy lottery tickets.

I’ll emphasize again that with the new system, you’ll still be able to buy lotto tickets in Powerball, Mega Millions and your other favorites. And of course we’ll still sell scratch, pull-tab and InstaPlay games. But the machines that print and cash your tickets will change next year and the lotto and InstaPlay tickets you buy will probably look a little different once the new system begins use.

We’ll have more updates as the go-live date gets closer, but now you know to be on the lookout for cool, new lottery equipment next year!

(And you may have already seen our updates about the Iowa Lottery’s efforts to protect against the spread of COVID-19 illnesses as we continue doing business with safety first, but if not, please check out our Q-and-A here.)

Check It Out: Touch-Screen Kiosks Sell Lotto, Scratch & InstaPlay Tickets

 

We did a Facebook Live demo for a sneak peek of them on Monday, and now here’s a video with a more detailed look at the lottery’s new touch-screen kiosks that are being installed in Iowa right now. For the first time, you as the customer can use the self-service kiosks to buy lotto, scratch and InstaPlay tickets on your own. You also can check your tickets at the kiosks, just like you can by using the self-checkers we’ve installed in nearly all of our retail locations. 

Our very first touch-screen kiosk was installed yesterday at Hy-Vee, 1700 Valley West Drive in West Des Moines. You’ll see more of them in the field as they continue to be installed statewide over the next couple months. The kiosks will be in our very biggest, busiest locations to give players there an additional way to buy tickets.

Check out the video above for a quick overview. Here are a few other details about the kiosks, in case you’re wondering: You can use a playslip at the kiosk. The playslip reader is just below the bill acceptor where you put money into the machine (you can see it in some of the video shots). You can redeem lottery coupons at the kiosk and the machine also can read the barcode on any ePlayslips you’ve created using the Iowa Lottery’s app available for both Android and Apple.      
 
We hope you like the new look and features of the kiosks!