Massachusetts Eyes Online Lottery

The state is asking legislators to approve lottery games played on computers and mobile devices.

July 13, 2016

BOSTON – Massachusetts wants to offer online lottery games in an effort to lessen decreasing sales of traditional paper tickets among young adults, the Boston Globe reports. “The only way to reach the younger market is via online lottery games,” said Massachusetts Treasurer Deb Goldberg, who supervises the lottery. “It’s the future and we need to face it.”

The Massachusetts State Lottery is requesting lawmakers allow the sale of lottery games played on computers and mobile devices. The pilot program, for which the lottery is asking for legislative clearance, would make players register online and pay with a credit card.

Currently, six states have online lottery games. Michigan debuted its online games in 2014. “It’s really proving to be quite popular,” with around 350,000 people registered to play online, said Jeff Holyfield, Michigan lottery spokesman. “Our launch opened a lot of eyes across the country. Lots of states are looking at it now.”

In Michigan, online games bumped overall lottery gains up by around $60 million annually. Holyfield pointed out that the online games haven’t reduced lottery sales at convenience stores, either. In fact, lottery retailers received record commissions in the two years since the online games launched. “Retailers were justifiably skeptical, but I think we’ve won them over,” he said.

However, Massachusetts convenience stores remain unconvinced that online lottery sales in their state will be good for retailers. “Online lottery games would mean a tremendous loss of business for our members,” said Joanne Mendes, executive director of the New England Convenience Store and Energy Marketers Association. “We need foot traffic to survive and thrive.”

Goldberg indicated that the lottery already has plans to help stores with gaming sales by perhaps linking gift card sales at convenience stores to online lottery games. “It used to be [that] lottery tickets sold themselves,” Goldberg said. “Now we will go out and market them.”

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