The Delaware Council on Gambling Problems has shared its concerns that the state’s Lottery has not done what it was supposed to do in order to prevent children and more vulnerable individuals from purchasing so-called scratch-off tickets.
The Delaware Lottery has installed new vending machines at multiple convenience stores across the state, providing local citizens with more opportunities to buy the above-mentioned tickets. However, the Council has protested against the machines’ expansion, saying that the Lottery had done nothing to make sure the necessary protection to prevent under-age gambling was in place.
The Executive Director of the Delaware Council on Gambling Problems, Arlene Simon, revealed that a number of concerned citizens have reached out to her over the phone on the matter. As explained by Ms. Simon, these state’s residents have questioned the customer protection measures taken by the Delaware Lottery in terms of preventing children from being able to freely buy lottery tickets from the machines.
Ms. Simon revealed that some local citizens asked questions about the monitoring and control imposed on the lottery vending machines, saying that minors were perfectly able to go and buy lottery tickets and scratch-off cards under the current status quo. The Council’s Executive Director further shared that things were not getting easier due to the fact that gaming options are easily accessible everywhere, including for young children.
Lottery Machines Could Bring Additional Revenue
A couple of weeks ago, the state of Delaware revealed that it had been installing lottery vending machines at local Wawa convenience stores. At the time when the announcement was made, the store chain revealed that all of its stores across the state would see new self-service kiosks placed by June 10th.
This is the first time ever for Delaware’s Wawa customers to be given the opportunity to purchase lottery products at such self-service machines. According to the Director of the Delaware Lottery, Vernon Kirk, the new lottery machines would bring an additional revenue of roughly $6 million to the state. The terminals will offer various gambling options to Delaware Lottery customers, but no sports betting options would be made available. A hundred lottery self-service kiosks were made immediately available, with 43 machines being placed at the Wawa convenience stores across the state.
Considering the rising concerns related to customer protection, Mr. Kirk further revealed that special agreements had been signed between the retail stores and the Lottery, regarding the sites where the machines were placed in order for under-aged gambling to be prevented. According to him, the agreement included a special requirement to make sure that the self-service kiosks were monitored to ensure qualitative customer protection measures.
Delaware Lottery’s Director also disagreed with the Delaware Council on Gambling Problems concerns that newly-added lottery machines could lead to increased number of minors being affected by problem gambling behavior in the future.