Illinois Lottery online ticket sales to be suspended
Test program allowing the state lottery to offer products online to end on 25 March, lawmakers are yet to approve extension Â
The Illinois Lottery could be forced to close down its online ticket sales with the test program allowing it to offer products over the internet coming to an end later this month. [private]
A measure to make online ticket sales permanent has yet to be moved forward by the House, and lawmakers arenât due to return to the Capitol until April 4.
The Illinois Lottery was among one of the first to make the move online when it went live in 2012 and expanded its offering in 2014 with the launch of a mobile app.
Its online offering was powered by Northstar â a joint venture by GTECH and Scientific Games, and while early results were promising the partnership broke down over missed revenue targets.
Their relationship finally came to an end in September last year, when both parties reached an exit agreement with a new private manager set to take over the lottery in 2017.
Since launching, online ticket sales have generated around $68m for education and construction projects in the state, attracting revenues of around $15m per year.
If the state is forced to close down its online offering, it will become the second to do so after the Minnesota Lottery was forced to do likewise.
Lawmakers in Minnesota claimed they were not consulted before the lottery flicked the switch on its egaming offering in February 2014 and passed legislation forcing it to take them offline.
Itâs not all doom and gloom however, with the Michigan Lottery on track to become a true power player in the sector after reporting FY 2015 online revenues of $147m.