Lottery vending machines finding homes in supermarkets – Arkansas News
By John LyonArkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — Two grocery store chains recently agreed to start selling Arkansas lottery tickets through vending machines, and lottery officials hope more large retailers will follow suit.
Ohio-based Kroger Co. and Texas-based Brookshire Grocery Co. are the first grocery stores to sign up to use the machines. Kroger spokesman Joe Bell said a machine was installed in its store at 6929 JFK Boulevard in North Little Rock on Wednesday, and the company has plans to install machines at nine more stores across the state.
“They’re coming along,” Lottery Director Ernie Passailaigue said Friday. “We hope to have all 100 out as quickly as possible. I think we’ll have 15 or so out by the end of next week.”
Brookshire spokesman Sam Anderson did not immediately return a call seeking comment Friday. Lottery spokeswoman Julie Baldridge said she did not know how many machines Brookshire plans to use.
The lottery has purchased 100 vending machines, nine of which had been installed by Friday. Before the Kroger store in North Little Rock received its machine, all had been installed in convenience stores.
Those convenience stores are in North Little Rock, Forrest City, Ozark, Prescott, Palestine, West Memphis, Morrilton and Van Buren. A list of locations is available on the lottery’s website.
Bell said Kroger already was selling lottery tickets in its customer service area, but it decided to add the machines because of “the convenience to the customer, where they don’t have to go to the store office if they choose not to, plus the variety the machines offer.”
He said that “so far, the reaction by customers has been positive.”
Lottery opponents such as the Christian conservative Family Council have pointed to the small number of businesses using the machines as a sign that the machines are not as popular as lottery officials expected. Baldridge said she believes many retailers were waiting until the end of the legislative session to make a decision.
“I think the publicity that was generated in the lead-up to the legislative session by people who opposed the machines had a certain chilling effect,” she said. “I think people sort of adopted a wait-and-see attitude.”
During the session the Family Council supported a bill to ban the machines. The bill by Sen. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, passed in the Senate but failed in a House committee and ultimately was referred to interim study.
Madison said she looks forward to participating in the study, though she will not be back for the 2013 session because of term limits.
“I’d like to be able to provide some more information from states that have lottery vending machines and the impact on problem gambling and underage gambling,” she said. “I had some information for the committee, but during the session people can be so rushed and people’s attention is so scattered that sometimes it’s hard to really get full committee understanding of all the issues.”
The machines purchased for Arkansas’ lottery are equipped to scan driver’s licenses to make sure players are at least 18. They also are equipped with remote-control devices that store employees can use to shut them off if a suspected juvenile tries to buy a ticket.
Baldridge said she believes that by the time the 2013 session comes around, people will be used to the machines and they will be less controversial. Madison said she disagrees.
“Many years ago a lot of states had lottery (vending machines) and they gave them up because of the problems associated with them,” she said.
Passailaigue has called the machines the future of the industry. He has said that each machine could raise about $50,000 a year for college scholarships.
The expansion of the vending machines into more stores could be a boost for a state lottery that has been dogged by controversy since before it launched in September 2009. Six-figure salaries awarded to Passailaigue and other top officials and a 2010 audit that found numerous problems with the lottery’s internal controls are among the issues that have drawn criticism.
Last week, Joe White of Conway resigned from the state Lottery Commission. White was twice involved in unsuccessful attempts to fire Passailaigue, in whom he said he had lost confidence.
White’s resignation came a day after he learned that the press had not been notified about two Lottery Commission gatherings.
——-On the Net:www.myarkansaslottery.com