B.C. Liquor stores are making it easier for those already buying booze to throw a few more bucks at the province by buying a lottery ticket.
All checkouts at 194 government liquor stores are now equipped with PIN pad prompts advising customers of two upcoming lottery jackpots but restricting sales to a maximum of $21.
The option has been available for years in about 90 private liquor stores, and nearly 800 bars and pubs across B.C., said Chris Fairclough, spokesman for the B.C. Lottery Corporation. The province has been in on the game for the last three months.
The move to increase point of purchase convenience for customers via government liquor stores came barely a month after the corporation announced 67 staff cutbacks due to rising costs and little revenue growth.
The PIN pad program, called Lotto Express, originated with Overwaitea Foods a few years back and was tried out in five B.C. Liquor stores on the mainland last year, Fairclough said.
B.C. Liquor Stores sell only Lotto Max and Lotto 6/49 tickets that offer “the big national jackpots.” The tickets have not yet been a big component of BCLC sales.
“It has met our expectations to date,” Fairclough said, but he could not provide sales figures.
BCLC does just over $1 billion in lottery sales each year, he said. Last year, it brought in $1.1 billion in net income including slot machines, casinos, provincial lotteries and Internet gambling — $20 million more than the previous year, the Vancouver Sun reported.
Lotto Express tickets can be purchased in 300 other stores in B.C. including Save-On-Foods and Quality Foods. BCLC has been in discussions with other grocery chains, Fairclough said.
Players must still validate tickets or claim small prizes at one of BCLC’s 3,800 traditional lottery retailers such as gas stations and corner stores where tickets can drive sales of other items, Fairclough said.
The PIN pad technology was developed after lottery players said they appreciate the convenience of buying tickets without a second stop, often while laden with shopping bags.
The only lottery tickets sold at liquor stores are $3 Lotto 6/49 ticket and $5 Lotto Max tickets, including the Extra.
“It’s meant for stores with multiple chains for multiple aisles,” he said. “You cannot go in and buy a scratch and win.”
A B.C. expert in gambling behaviour said that “alcohol consumption tends to increase risk-taking tendencies,” but points out that liquor store customers are generally not under the influence when buying alcohol.
Lotteries have been the most popular form of gambling in B.C., according to B.C.’s 2008 gambling prevalence report, but “problematic gambling” was low in lottery players compared to casinos, gambling machines and Internet gambling, Luke Clark, director of the Centre for Gambling Research at the University of B.C. told the Times Colonist in an email.
However, research shows that “people are more willing to make purchases by credit than cash, presumably because the ‘pain of paying’ is reduced when there is no physical transfer of money,” he said. But he is not aware that this research considered gambling decisions.
Economists have frequently noted that lower income households tend to spend a greater proportion of their income on lotteries than higher income households, but the report shows the opposite in B.C., he said.
“Respondents on higher incomes were more likely to have played the lottery in the past year,” he said.
The chances of winning 6/49 are one in 14 million and for Lotto Max the chances are one in 28 million. Still, View Royal resident Duarte Almeida won $13.7 million in August after buying a Lotto 6/49 ticket at a market in Shawnigan Lake.
