As the South Carolina Education Lottery seeks to attract the next generation of players, the gaming agency wants permission to sell tickets via vending machines. (File photo/Getty Images)
COLUMBIA — Whenever the South Carolina lottery director shops in the Food Lion grocery store in Five Points, which sits in the backyard of the University of South Carolina, she notices that the line for self-service checkout stretches down the aisle.
“And where there are live clerks, they’re empty, because the younger generation doesn’t talk to people,” Dolly Garfield told House budget writers in January. “That’s a sad reality, but it’s the truth.”
As the Lottery Commission seeks to attract the next generation of players gambling on the chance to win the jackpot, the agency wants permission to sell tickets via vending machines placed in gas stations, grocery stores and other licensed retail locations across the state.
Efforts to add a one-year rule to the next state budget failed during debate in the House last month. House Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, struck down the proposal, ruling it unrelated to state spending.
On Wednesday, the House Ways and Means Committee took a different tack, voting 16-4 to forward to the floor a bill that would approve use of the machines permanently in state law.
The Lottery Commission anticipates the state could pay off the bill for buying 500 new machines, which cost $20,000, and even earn between $1 million and $6.5 million in additional revenue in the first year after installing them. After that, the commission estimates it could raise $3.4 million to $9 million more annually for educational scholarships in the state.
Machines will be required to read IDs to make sure a person is at least 18 years old.
The proposal has long had the support of the association that represents gas station owners in the state, Garfield said.
South Carolina is now the only state lottery in the country that does not allow these machines. Nebraska’s governor in February signed into law legislation allowing the machines in the Cornhusker State.
“The opportunity cost of not doing it is not reaching consumers who are not willing to do the traditional method of going to a clerk and purchasing lottery tickets,” Anne Huffman, the CFO for the lottery, told House budget writers in January.
The request comes on the heels of another effort to attract younger customers: a law passed last year allowing people to buy lottery tickets with a debit card rather than cash only.
The Lottery Commission said that change is already bearing fruit.
Huffman said retailers who began accepting debit cards saw 7.5% higher sales compared to those who did not. That amounted to $11.6 million more for education.
About 57% of the state’s 4,030 lottery retailers accept debit cards, she said.
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Courtesy of South Carolina Daily Gazette
