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Ohio Lottery eyeing launch of mobile and online ‘iLottery’ games

Ohio Lottery eyeing launch of mobile and online ‘iLottery’ games

Ohio is moving to become the latest state lottery to offer online and mobile gaming.Get more news about 彩票包网,you can vist loto98.com

Ohio Lottery officials hope to launch what they’re calling an “iLottery” offering — a desktop and mobile app platform for some existing lottery games — within the next year. Currently, eight states offer online lottery products, officials said, including bordering states Kentucky, Michigan and Pennsylvania.By allowing additional methods of purchasing existing content, the lottery can keep up with the way people have become accustomed to buying everything from music and books to their groceries,” Ohio Lottery Director Pat McDonald told state lawmakers during a Statehouse hearing in Columbus earlier this week.

Lottery officials are still developing the specifics of their proposal, and plan to seek proposals for companies that will help them develop, launch and maintain their online platform sometime soon. For comparison, the Michigan lottery went online in 2014, and today offers Instant Keno, Powerball, Mega Millions and other games.

Ohio lottery officials hope to expand their profits, which in Ohio are used to fund K-12 education, by $100 million annually once the program has been up and running for five years, using Michigan as a comparison. But lottery officials estimate it will make closer to $45 million during its early years.

Lottery officials think they can make more money by giving people more opportunities to play, and by appealing to a different, younger customer.

But lottery retailers are worried the state lottery’s movement toward online gaming will cut into their foot traffic.

“There’s certainly some concerns about moving toward a mobile application,” said Alex Boehnke, a lobbyist for the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants, which represents Ohio convenience stores. “But we’ll really have to dig down into the fine details of any proposal before we take a position.”

Lottery officials say their research shows that in other states, online gaming expands the lottery market by appealing to younger customers. McDonald said in an interview the state plans to include cross-promotions through their app, like offering coupons or other incentives to get online gamers to buy physical lottery tickets.

“Our research shows that other states that have iLottery saw increased brick and mortar store sales,” McDonald said. “They didn’t cannibalize them.”From 2016 to 2018, annual state lottery profits — mostly traditional lottery sales and some revenues from video slot machines at racinos around the state — averaged $1.06 billion, with the state reaching a record $1,087.7 billion in 2018. Traditional lottery sales were around four times that.

During the committee hearing earlier this week, State Rep. Erica Crawley, a Democrat from Columbus, asked McDonald what the safeguards the lottery will have to protect people with gambling addictions.

McDonald responded online offerings allow lottery officials to have greater control when it comes to controlling gaming behaviors, by controlling how much people can spend or imposing time limits.

And that gets at another source of potential opposition — religious groups and others who are concerned about the impact of the lottery on the poor and other vulnerable groups. State lottery data consistently shows the highest lottery sales tend to occur in some of the poorest areas of the state.

Aaron Baer, president of Citizens for Community Values, a conservative Christian group, said his organization opposes any expansion of the lottery. Depending on what the state proposes, he said CCV and other groups may file legal challenges, since the Ohio Constitution strictly regulates gaming and gambling.

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