Indiana has banned lottery couriers from operating in the state while it works on a plan for an iLottery. The bill passed in the House by a margin of 82-10 earlier this week. It had already cleared the Senate and has now reached Gov. Mike Braun’s desk for his signature.
The latest vote doesn’t mean the state is opposed to lottery couriers in the future, though. The bill, Senate Bill 94, is essentially being tabled to discuss the status of iLottery at the same time.
Rep. Ethan Manning, co-sponsor of the bill and chair of the House Public Policy Committee, wants to but both couriers and iLottery “on a level playing field” until it gets sorted out. He also added:
“At this time, the thought is to prohibit them, similar to what we did with iLottery a few years ago, until the legislature can have that full conversation around lottery moving forward.”
A class A misdemeanor would be charged to anyone attempting a courier service. Couriers provide online sales of retails lottery tickets through a website or mobile application. Customers make their purchase of select lottery games with the courier. The couriers then physically go to a retailer and purchase the lottery ticket and send a scan of the ticket to their customer.
iLottery and couriers go hand-in-hand
It appears as if the state wants to discuss the topics of both iLottery and couriers at the same time. There’s an online component to couriers, which legislation has recognized. Manning continued, according to Lottery Geeks:
“Because the concern is, without iLottery, lottery couriers still allow you to purchase lottery tickets over the internet. Now, they do buy a physical ticket at the end of that, but at the end of the day, from a consumer perspective, it’s not all that different.
“You’re buying lottery tickets online via an app or a website. And so I think those two things probably need to go together — that overall discussion, iLottery and lottery courier.”
Indiana joins Texas as the latest state to ban lottery couriers. The Lonestar State did so in February after its commissioner resigned. The Texas Lottery Commission also raised concern over “the integrity, security, honesty and fairness of lottery operations.”
It doesn’t appear that Indiana has the same outlook. Rather, it aims to sort out iLottery and couriers at the same time.
