Washington’s Lottery will be adding Debit to their Lottery Vending Machines (LVMs). The Lottery also plans to add a new feature to the LVMs that they call “cart.” “It will make buying a lottery ticket from an LVM very similar to buying from Amazon. We hope to start with a few stores in mid-June and be fully functional sometime in early July,” Ron Smerer, Sales & Marketing Director, Washington Lottery, said.
Like most states, Washington has seen an increase in crime. The Lottery has seen an increase in the number of incidents and the amounts that are stolen have reached record proportions. The 300 LVMs will help reduce incidents. “We are looking at the possibility of some sort of ticket x ticket sales,” Smerer said.
Washington’s Lottery’s biggest accomplishment in the past year is still the “Department of Imagination” (DoI) store in Spokane. “It continues to sell above our expectations and as a result, we have expanded our hours to seven days a week, and we are open during all of the Mall hours,” Smerer said.