Monday, June 19, 2006

Lottery to soon debut new look - The Olympian - Olympia, Washington

Lottery to soon debut new look - The Olympian - Olympia, Washington: "Lottery to soon debut new look

BY BRAD SHANNON
THE OLYMPIAN
Washington lottery players can expect new green tickets July 2, the date the state-run gambling enterprise switches to new machines in its retail outlets.
The switch comes at a time the state Lottery is struggling to maintain its share of the state's exploding gambling market. But the change is not expected to boost the state's shrinking share of the $1.7 billion that gamblers lose each year in Washington.
The change in ticket stock is tied to the installation of new ticket-dispensing machines that are more up to date and use a touch-screen function, Lottery spokeswoman Jacque Coe said.
'The machines we have are old by lottery technology standards,'' Coe said.
'Whereas the old lottery terminals were push-button, these are intuitive; they are touch screen. So they are easier for the retailer to operate.''
'On July 2, we'll go ahead and flip the switch. It'll go live,'' Coe said.
Among South Sound retailers with new gear already installed is Farelli's Pizza and Pool Co., off Yelm Highway south of Lacey.
'It's OK,' Corrine Heck, gambling manager for Farelli's, said of the ticket-dispensing machine Friday.
'I'm so used to the other one, it seemed a little faster. But this one is smaller, and it fits better in the space we have for it.''
As for customers, 'They just want more winners,'' Heck said.
Indeed. The changes in machinery come at a time when the state Lottery is steadily losing its share of the gambling market. The Lottery has seen its overall take of the state gambling dollar plummet in the past decade, dropping to 10 percent last year from 35 percent in 1996, according to data kept by t"

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