6/08/2010 - 4:27 PM

Lottery Converts to a New Gaming System with Improvements for Players and Retailers

Big changes are coming for Louisiana Lottery players and some 2,800 retailers on June 27, when the Lottery converts its retailer terminal hardware, gaming system and back office software.

The new ticket terminals for retailers feature touch-screen technology, user-friendly menus, enhanced accounting reports and more flexible peripheral equipment, including thermal ticket printers for draw-style game tickets. Once the new system comes online at noon on June 27, it will be active 24-hours-a-day for ticket sales and cashing. Standard sales breaks for draw-style games will still apply.

Another upgrade to the retailer terminal system includes flat-screen color monitors, which will display digital advertising and player messages at the point of sale.  The Lottery will utilize these displays to air jackpot amounts as well as information on new products, promotions, winners and player reminders.

The new system conversion will also include player-focused improvements. Most noticeably, a discreet customer display unit will communicate to players the amount of their Lottery purchase transaction and the value of Lottery tickets presented for cashing. If the ticket is not a winner, this information will also be displayed. If the ticket has won more than $600 - the maximum amount a retailer can pay - the display will instruct the player to visit a Lottery office to claim the prize.

Other aesthetic changes include new, colorful paper for draw-style game tickets and redesigned playslips. Players who use playslips to select their Lottery numbers and play options will need to complete a new one, using blue or black ink, as the old ones will no longer work after June 26.

Because of differences in the patented bar coding technology between the old and new system, the Lottery is suspending the multidraw option on its draw-style games to ensure a smoother transition to its new system. The multidraw option enables players to purchase plays for advance, consecutive drawings. Beginning April 17, multidraw was suspended for Powerball, Lotto and Easy 5. Likewise, multidraw will be suspended on June 11 for Pick 3 and Pick 4. Multidraw will be reactivated for all draw-style games when the system converts on June 27.

The last Lottery terminal change occurred in July 2000, followed by a gaming system software conversion in June 2002. The last time both the terminals and gaming software were installed simultaneously was during the Lottery's start-up in 1991.

The Lottery's new gaming system vendor is INTRALOT, which provides similar services for nine other U.S. lotteries. The current vendor is GTECH. In March 2009, the bid was awarded with the current contract expiring in July 2010. The new contract is for 10 years with two one-year renewal options.