ANNAPOLIS - Maryland lottery officials are considering whether to sell online lottery tickets by July 1 to bring in additional revenue, reports the Maryland Gazette. However, local retailers are speaking out against Internet lottery sales, including convenience stores.
In late December, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a ruling that removes obstacles for state lotteries to offer online lottery tickets. Some states are now looking at online lottery ticket sales as potential revenue drivers. According to the news source, Gov. Martin O€™Malley said online lottery sales could add $2 million more to the state coffer in fiscal year 2013.
Current regulations ban the use of credit cards to purchase lottery tickets, a form of payment that many consumers rely on for online purchases. Maryland Lottery Director Stephen Martino commented that the state could get around this by selling an iTunes-like card that is purchased with cash at a store, with the money deposited into and online lottery account.
"We believe the lottery and the lottery industry needs new sales channels," Martino told the news source, adding, "This is how people are increasingly going to be doing business."
However, convenience store owners maintain that allowing online lottery sales will hurt their businesses. NACS Sr. Vice President of Government Relations Lyle Beckwith told the news source that the average convenience store customer purchases lottery tickets spends about $4.00 more per visit on in-store merchandise. Face-to-face transactions also allow retailers to check ID on an age-restricted product. "We are the industry of age verification," he said.
Marino, meanwhile, believes that online sales won€™t cannibalize c-store sales, adding that the state is looking at ways to "marry the experience of brick-and-mortar with Internet where you buy a traditional instant ticket with an instant portion there and then go to the website to play the rest of the game."
Read more about online lottery sales and the threat to c-store operations in a future issue of NACS Magazine, as well as online.