Iowa Lottery spokeswoman Tina Pothoff says the shutdown of the TouchPlay machines has apparently spurred some people to get out and play the machines before the deadline tonight.
A 60-something man who asked not to be identified tried his luck on a TouchPlay machine for the first time today at a Des Moines convenience store. He won 26 dollars and says that’s pretty good for a one dollar investment. The man says there should be a place for the machines, but he agrees with the critics that don’t want them readily accessible to the public.
He says if they were in lounges were kids weren’t around he’d have no problem with that, but he says it’s different when the machines are in stores. Critics say the machines look and sound too much like slot machines and spread gambling to widely across the state.