The Delaware Lottery plans to allow patrons of top lottery ticket sellers to use their debit cards to buy tickets over the counter.
The lottery also will add a Sunday drawing to two of its popular draw games.
The two moves are expected to help the Lottery add another $2.4 million to the state budget in fiscal year 2024, which starts July 1, and $6 million in fiscal year 2025.
The lottery this year added $326 million to the state general fund, said Helene Keeley, executive director of the Delaware Lottery,
Since its founding in 1975, the lottery has only allowed cash to be used to buy a ticket over the counter.
The lottery did allow debit cards to be used in machines that sell tickets in places such as Wawa and Royal Farms.
By this time next year – which would be the third quarter of the state’s fiscal year – the lottery plans to let its top 100 retailers begin taking debit cards – but not credit cards or other forms of cashless payments such as Venmo or Apple Pay.
The Lottery also plans to add a Sunday night drawing to its popular Play 3 and Play 4 games.
Right now, the games have a drawing each morning and each evening Monday through Saturday, but only a morning drawing on Sunday.
“People are loyal to certain products. And in all our research in all our surveys that we do, it’s very apparent that people are loyal,” Keeley said. “Our decision to add the Sunday evening draw was based upon research. We’re not just saying, ‘Let’s add this draw and hopefully people who play the evening draw on a regular basis will come along and do that.’”
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