The Iowa Lottery will lose millions of dollars in income when the TouchPlay machines are shut down in May — but the organization’s leader says they will move on. Director Ed Stanek say this isn’t the first time the Iowa Lottery has had to deal with a loss of revenue.
Stanek says there weren’t any casinos in the state when the Iowa Lottery started and there weren’t casinos at the racetracks and he says they had to adapt. Stanek says states on Iowa’s borders have started up lotteries that took “significant” sales away from Iowa. For example, he says Iowa lost 11-million dollars in sales from across the border when Nebraska joined the Powerball drawing.
Stanek says there have been other legislative actions that have also impacted the lottery. He says in the early 90’s the legal age to buy lottery tickets was changed from 18 to 21, and he says “that was a significant rollback and it affected our income significantly.”
Stanek says they have to react to the latest loss of revenue from TouchPlay just as they have in the other instances. Stanek says, “We just need to be intelligent, follow the instructions of the Legislature and adapt as appropriately as we can.” The governor March 20th signed a measure from the Iowa Legislature that requires the Iowa Lottery to shut down the TouchPlay machines by midnight May 3rd.