Will vending machines boost lottery sales in SC? Lawmakers look to make that bet
Trips to convenience stores to buy a bottle of soda or pay for fuel can feel less convenient when a clerk has a line of people trying their luck and buying a lottery ticket.
However, when the state’s next fiscal year begins July 1, those who play the South Carolina Education Lottery might have a new method of buying tickets.
Members of the House budget-writing committee approved adding a proviso to the state’s annual spending plan that allows automated lottery vending machines in South Carolina.
Provisos are one-year laws attached to the budget, but once approved they can be renewed year after year. Provisos also can serve as an experiment to test a new potential law.
Lottery vending machines are estimated to bring in about $1 million in additional lottery revenue for education scholarships. Machines will be required to read IDs to make sure a person is at least 18 years old.
“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 chief financial officer for the SC Lottery, told House budget writers in January.
If the proviso stays in the budget, it would be the second year in a row lawmakers aimed to make playing the lottery easier. Last year, lawmakers allowed people to use debit cards to purchase lottery tickets. Previously, the state’s lottery was a cash-only game. About 57% of the state’s 4,030 lottery retailers accept debit cards.
The lottery estimates it would cost about $20,000 to install each machine. The machines are expected to pay for themselves within nine-and-a-half months and people would be able to buy tickets for scratch-off and draw games such as Pick 3, Pick 4, Mega Millions or Powerball.
However, no decision has been made on how many vending machines the commission would install.
Around the country, 48 other states allow lottery vending machines. Nebraska is considering allowing lottery vending machines.
State Reps. Nathan Ballentine, R-Richland, Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, and Bill Taylor, R-Aiken, have co-sponsored legislation to allow the machines permanently.
“We learned that we can do that without giving them any more money. And most importantly, besides freeing up and being a convenience for other customers who are just coming and going, we can bring in more money for scholarships,” Ballentine said.
The machines would help address long lines at retailers and help accommodate people who don’t want to interact with a clerk, lottery officials said.
Dolly Garfield, the CEO of the SC Lottery, said the Lottery Commission board is in favor of allowing vending machines.
“I go in the Food Lion in Five Points, and it’s ridiculous. The line is all the way down an aisle for the self-service checkout and where there (are) live clerks, they’re empty because the younger generation doesn’t talk to people, and that’s a sad reality, but it’s the truth,” Garfield told budget writers in January. “So our solution to that would be to offer instant ticket vending machines.”
State Rep. Stephen Long, R-Spartanburg, who sits on the Ways and Means Committee, voted against adding the provision to the budget because he questioned whether playing the lottery should be made more readily available when the game could hurt lower income people.
“They’re struggling to make ends meet, and they have this dream of winning a large sum, and the reality is that’s just not going to happen for the vast majority of people,” Long said. “So really what it is, is people, they get their paycheck, and they keep dumping it in the lottery tickets, instead of using that for their family, or for themselves, or potentially even making investments of it.”
