Includes audio report
The Maryland Lottery hopes to have its online lottery sales platform up and running by January 1, 2013.
Lottery Director Stephen Martino tells WBAL Radio that the Maryland legislature approved $500-thousand for the lottery to start up the program and hire some additional staff.
Martino says the time has come for Internet lottery sales in Maryland.
"We just think this is a way that people are doing business and commerce is moving. You can buy practically anything on the Internet. It just seems logical," says Martino.
He says Illinois just launched its Internet lottery sales program and about a dozen other states are looking at such programs.
"In no place where an Internet lottery platform has been launched has there been a decline in retail commissions or retail sales at traditional lottery retailers," says Martino.
All the traditional lottery games would be sold online in Maryland.
Martino says interested players would set up an account where officials would verify that the player is 18-years-old and legally able to purchase a ticket.
He believes that allowing Internet sales will help boost the number of players in Maryland.
"Internet is attracting a new customer. It is not cannibalizing from the current customer base. So people who have been used to going to the retailer to play their numbers or buy their tickets are going to continue to do that," says Martino.
AUDIO: Maryland Lottery Director Stephen Martino speaks about online lottery sales
I find it very hard to believe that online sales won't have an impact on retail sales at traditional lottery retailers. Martino says "In no place . . ." has this happened, but only one state has done it so far, and that hasn't been for very long. Give it time.
You should have to go to a retailer to set up your acct.
after that any ticket you buy online would be counted as sold by that retailer.
i would still go out to get mine, but it would be convenient if for some reason i could not get to the store.
I can watch my TV and bet the ponies, but i still go to the race track.
Retailers will flip out, granted there still be a lot of store sales, I mean there are those that can"t even fill out a playslip........but the internet......................
That only makes sense from a retailer POV, but not from the lottery or lottery player POV. One can buy lottery tickets at Lottery HQ and if they win big, no retailer gets a cut. So online is same...it cuts out the middleman. Besides, I would not want to set up and share my SSN and bank account details on anybody elses computer. So that is a bad idea haymaker.
I like the setup just the way it is...no need to complicate the matter in the interest of some retailer getting a cut. So since you proposed this idea, please tell me what would happen for lottery players in cases where the retailer they set their account up with gets banned from selling lottery tickets? See that is just one bad idea since it would not only affect the retailer, but also all those who setup accounts with that retailer.
not sure how it would work since my state has not offered it,
but you,re right no one is getting my ssn.
If Washington State ever goes the route of online sales, I would be one who would quickly switch most, if not all, of my ticket sales to online. I'm retired, so it would be very convenient to just sit home and buy my tickets rather than to have to drive the three miles to the nearest outlet. They'd sell more tickets to me, too, as there are many times (twice in the last two weeks) that I just skipped buying tickets when I didn't have any other reason to go to the store. But I suspect those people who can readily stop by a retail outlet on their way to or from work might not be as easily affected by such a change.
It will be interesting to see how fast other states jump on the online bandwagon.
I'm sure that Iowa will go online in the near future.The gals at the Iowa lottery are just crazy about computers and everything electronic.Especially Twitter & Farcebook.They're always running contests for their Twitter & Farcebook fans.
You can buy lottery tickets online and at lottery retailers in most European countries mainly the UK. Lottery players use both in England. I do not understand why USA lotteries are so slow to embrace the Internet relative to European countries.
"You should have to go to a retailer to set up your acct."
Where did you read such a thing?
Lottery players set up their accounts online from the comfort of their homes. I feel that they will follow the European countries model to sell lottery tickets online. They have been selling lottery tickets online successfully for a long time. I think that Illinois followed the England model.
Just because "the Europeans" do something doesn't necessarily make it a good idea.
They're a bunch of frigging socialists over there.
You can't even point toy guns at people in France.
Englishmen never brush their teeth.
You want that kind of stuff spreading over here?
Targetting the younger generation?
Parents tell your credit cards to run for cover!
"Where did you read such a thing?"
He didn't. That was his opinion, indicated by the use of the word "should".
Don't worry, Thrifty, I'm sure New York will have online play set up by the end of the year. They already have online subscriptions for MM and Lotto with PB coming soon, it won't be long before they take the next step and open up individual draws to online players.
There are some things that Europeans get wrong, and there are other things they get right. This is an example of the latter.
There's a whole big world out there. It wouldn't hurt to look beyond our nation's borders once in a while and see what we can learn from other people.