Scientific Games Corporation and the Pennsylvania Lottery launched the first technology in the U.S. allowing for credit- and debit-card purchases of lottery instant tickets ant draw games.
It is the first card payment purchase of lottery games through electronic commerce technology integrated with lottery gaming systems technology. Scientific Games developed the commerce solution for the Pennsylvania Lottery, rolling it out recently in a field trial at retailers in the Harrisburg area. The company’s point-of-sale terminals included in the trial also support mobile payment options such as Android Pay, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.
“To protect future funding to lottery beneficiaries, the industry must keep pace with rapidly changing consumer demands,” said Pat McHugh, senior vice president, global lottery systems for Scientific Games. “Scientific Games has innovated payment options to align with today’s consumer preferences. We are experiencing an increasingly cashless society, and the timing was right for the Pennsylvania Lottery to test new, convenient commerce solutions to their players and retailers.”
According to the National Association of Convenience Stores, 40 percent of convenience store transactions in 2014 were credit and debit card purchases. Cash purchases at point-of-sale are expected to drop to 22.5 percent in 2017 (Huffington Post Money).
At the center of the Pennsylvania Lottery pilot is Scientific Games’ unique omni-channel enterprise service bus (ESB) technology, a service-oriented gaming platform designed to securely integrate third-party products and services such as card payment processing.
The payment solution developed for the lottery is approved by the Multi-state Lottery Association (MUSL), and the card processing terminals are both Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) and Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant for financial security standards.
Scientific Games, the Pennsylvania Lottery’s gaming systems provider since 1978, has worked with the lottery on several initiatives to integrate value-added third party products and services. Scientific Games recently implemented its ESB to facilitate new product and service launches in Pennsylvania including card payments and gift cards, as well as pay at the pump and in-lane at multi-checkout retail locations.
