Florida Lawmakers Hope To Add Octane to Lottery Sales Through Fuel-Pump Purchases

Point-of-sale terminals and fuel pumps as lottery-ticket dispensers? That’s a question some states continue to mull, though Minnesota tried it and didn’t like it.

The latest state trying to juice lottery sales by making card payments easier is Florida. Bills introduced last month in the state House and Senate would allow POS terminals, including fuel pumps enabled for card acceptance, to dispense tickets and games sponsored by the Florida Department of the Lottery, or Florida Lottery. The bills, HB 415 and SB 402, would ban terminals from revealing winning numbers or dispensing winnings, and sales would be limited to persons age 18 and older.

Currently, Florida law prohibits credit or debit card sales for the lottery at regular POS terminals unless the tickets are part of a purchase of at least $20 for other goods and services, an analysis of the House bill by Florida House of Representatives staff says.

Sales at specialty Florida Lottery vending machines totaled $248 million in the 2013-14 fiscal year, the analysis says. Lottery sales at fuel pumps and POS terminals inside stores probably would take some sales away from those machines, but the bills’ sponsors hope overall sales will increase. For merchant acquirers and specialty payment processors, expanded sales could produce more revenue-generating transactions.

But the bills are already attracting critics, such as a writer for the Orlando Sentinel who says the Florida Lottery is trying to boost stagnant sales with loosened rules that would make it too easy for consumers to part with their money.

The legislative analysis reviewed the experiences of several other states that attempted to broaden outlets for lottery sales. Just this past August, the California State Lottery Commission expanded a year-long test of fuel-pump sales from a single location to 87 locations in the Los Angeles and Sacramento areas. California requires that the customer’s driver’s license or state identification card be scanned to confirm eligibility, and the lottery vendor gets a $1 transaction fee.

In January, the North Carolina Education Lottery rolled out its “Play at the Pump” program, which had 117 locations by July. The program accepts only debit cards and has a $70 weekly limit per card. The Missouri Lottery in late 2013 allowed existing lottery outlets to sell tickets at fuel pumps, but only by debit card.

The Minnesota Lottery gained attention in 2012 when it okayed lottery ticket sales at both fuel pumps and ATMs. But that ended this past summer, after the state Legislature voted 56-8 in May to ban lottery sales at ATMs and fuel pumps as well as online, according to a convenience-store industry publication, NACS Online. Lawmakers said lottery officials overstepped their authority when they expanded into those venues without express approval from the Legislature.