"Express" checkout for lottery tickets

By Kate Northrop

The Iowa Lottery announced on Tuesday that players can purchase Powerball and Mega Millions tickets at select retailers in the checkout lane.

Starting this month, Iowa residents will be able to purchase certain lottery tickets at the cash register in a seamless checkout experience.

By the end of March, all Fareway stores will offer Easy Play, a new purchase option that lets customers purchase Mega Millions and Powerball tickets in the checkout lane. Prior to the rollout, lottery tickets were only sold at lottery terminals or self-service vending machines in retailers.

Powerball and Mega Millions tickets purchased in the checkout lane at Fareway stores will only be easy-pick (Quick Pick) tickets, and the ticket will be printed on the same paper as store receipts, printed separately.

"Think of Easy Play as an express lane while the lottery terminal provides a full-service approach for all lottery products," Lottery CEO Matt Strawn said in a press release. "We recognize consumer expectations for convenience and are thrilled to work with a partner like Fareway to deliver that experience."

The Easy Pick solution allows players to purchase 1, 2, 3, 5, or 10 plays for the next upcoming Mega Millions or Powerball drawing, but it does not allow players to add on different features such as Power Play, Double Play, or Megaplier.

Players who want to select their own numbers, cash a winning ticket, or buy tickets for other lottery games besides Powerball and Mega Millions must do so at the lottery terminal.

Fareway Stores Inc. Chief Retail Officer Mike McCormick said the chain is thrilled to be the first Iowa Lottery partner to debut a new type of lottery ticket purchase that makes playing more seamless and accessible.

"We are excited to partner with the Iowa Lottery to be the first retailer in the state to provide customers with the convenience of Easy Play," McCormick said in a statement. "At Fareway, the customer experience is a top priority and adding Easy Play will elevate that experience for our lottery playing customers."

Developing and implementing the Easy Play technology has been an undertaking years in the making, Strawn added, and Lottery staff have been taking steps to ensure that tickets produced in the checkout lane follow the same security standards as ones acquired from a regular terminal or self-service kiosk. Easy Play tickets may only be purchased with cash or the equivalent, including debit cards.

Customers will know if it is possible to buy Mega Millions or Powerball tickets in the Fareway checkout lane if they spot a cash register that looks similar to a regular lottery terminal and features the Easy Play logo.

There are a few moving parts that make selling tickets at the cash register technologically possible, according to the Lottery: the statewide central gaming system that provides and tracks Iowa Lottery ticket transactions in real-time, the point-of-sale system utilized by Fareway at their cash registers, and a systems communications bridge that securely connects them.

The systems bridge is powered by ABACUS Fusion Platform. ABACUS partnered with Scientific Games, which provides the Lottery's statewide gaming system, to link the Fareway system with the Lottery gaming system, allowing multi-state game tickets to be sold through retailers' point-of-sale systems.

"We are pleased to be working with the Iowa Lottery and Fareway Stores, who will be the first U.S. lottery and grocer, and among the first in North America, to adopt this print-on-receipt lottery solution," ABACUS CEO Simon Butler said. "ABACUS are innovators in the lottery industry and help lead the U.S. lottery market in improving retail lottery operations."