The Iowa Lottery began issuing receipts today for players who check their tickets at retailers across the state. Lottery spokesperson, Tina Pothoff, says this is another security step, following the first step that began on March 15th.
Pothoff says that was the date they began requiring players to sign their tickets before they could be checked to see if they were a winner. The receipts are the second phase of security that Pothoff says is primarily for players so they have a receipt that shows how much they’ve won.
Pothoff says you should expect to be offered a receipt each time you cash a lotto or instant-scratch ticket. She says the receipts will be printed out when the tickets are checked or cashed, and it is then up to the player if they want to keep the receipt or throw it away. The changes were spurred by questions from the state ombudsman over lottery security measures after fraud in the Canadian Lottery.
There were no cases of fraud in the Iowa Lottery, but Lottery officials announced the changes as a precaution. Pothoff says the Iowa Lottery wants to do everything it can to prevent any kind of fraud. Receipts will not be printed for pull-tab tickets, as the amount of any pull-tab prize won is already printed under the tabs on the front of the ticket.