Kansas Governor Jeff Colyer recently signed a bill authorizing lottery tickets to be sold through vending machines. The law will take effect later this month, and state officials expect the machines to start being installed in gas stations and convenience stores next year. Kansas Lottery Director Terry Presta said eventually 500 machines could be in operation at many of the 1,700 retail stores that sell lottery tickets now.
Presta added vending machine sales could raise Kansas Lottery ticket sales by up to $100 million a year. In the most recent state budget, ending June 30, 2017, the lottery reported $258 million in sales, with $75 million going to the state. Under the new law, in the state budget year starting July 1, up to $4 million of the state’s share of vending machine profits must got to community mental health services, then $8 million a year after that.
“It’s great for the state of Kansas. It’ll be nice to have a little more money,” Presta said.
Former Governor Sam Brownback vetoed a bill allowing lottery ticket vending machines last year. When he resigned at the end of January to become Ambassador At Large for International Religious Freedom, Colyer rose from lieutenant governor to governor. The new vending-machine bill passed earlier this month with large bipartisan majorities. “People were familiar with it. It was much easier,” Presta said.
Democratic state Rep. John Carmichael opposed the new legislation, stating it’s “morally repugnant” for Kansas to raise money for mental health services by preying on people with gambling addictions. “I think they handed out a little piece of candy in exchange for an expansion of gambling,” Carmichael said.
Most of the 44 states with lotteries allow vending-machine ticket sales.
