Lottery plans new electronic game

The Iowa Lottery plans to start selling an electronic version of its familiar scratch-off games this fall, what spokeswoman Mary Neubauer calls the “next generation” of the games. The game called “Quarter Play” will come on a card about the size of two driver’s licenses and about twice as thick. It’s battery-operated so you’ll pull off a little tab on the back, push the “play” button and then three screens on the front will display rolling numbers. If the numbers match, you’ll win a prize. After you run through the 80 plays, it will display the top prize you’ve won. All cards will cost 20-dollars or roughly a quarter-dollar per play. Neubauer says each card will have at least a five-dollar winner with a top prize of 300-dollars. Some compare it to an adult version of the popular Nintendo Gameboy, and Neubauer says it is a pretty high-tech product. The game will make its world debut in eastern Iowa in mid-October. It will be test-marketed in places like Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Davenport and Dubuque.