PHAI Mentioned in Boston Globe Article About Efforts to Prevent Underage Lottery Vending

In recent months, PHAI has worked with concerned parents and a national anti-predatory gambling group to address youth access to instant lottery tickets through unattended vending machines. Fears around easy access to scratch tickets by kids grew when we found that a 14-year-old was able to easily purchase tickets from lottery vending machines in supermarkets in Arlington, Cambridge, and Somerville, Massachusetts.  Each attempt was made in the late afternoon without any effort to conceal the sale.  In each instance, the teenager was able to approach the machine and make a slow and deliberate purchase while customers and store personnel were nearby.

PHAI filed a lawsuit on behalf of the father of the teenager as well as Stop Predatory Gambling against one of the supermarket chains, Star Markets, and has initiated legal action against Stop & Shop. In the story published today in the Boston Globe, the Massachusetts Lottery Commission announced that some vending machines will now use a scanning technology feature to verify the age of purchasers through their drivers\’ license or state-issued identification.  The executive director of the Commission, Beth Bresnahan, indicates that, “following some incidents of underage play that recently transpired . . . the Lottery is activating this feature across all of the approximately 500 PAT machines currently in the field to fully protect the integrity of ticket sales at retail locations.” \”PATs,\” or \”Player Activated Terminals,\” represent less than 30% of all lottery vending machines in Massachusetts.

The \”incidents\” Ms. Bresnahan referred to are, presumably, those that were brought to the attention of the Commission through PHAI\’s litigation and coverage of the lawsuit by the Boston Globe as well as its strong editorial calling for effective age-restriction enforcement by the Commission.

It remains to be seen whether these new measures will be effective, particularly because they affect only a fraction of the vending machines that are in places frequented by youth.