Kinston receives first fully automated lottery machine in the state

The first “Lottery to Go” automated lottery machine in the state came to Kinston on Tuesday.

The Kinston-based Realo Discount Drugs chain, which operates 14 stores throughout Eastern North Carolina, is the first retailer in North Carolina to receive the Lottery to Go machine, which allows customers to purchase tickets for or play nearly every game offered by the N.C. Education Lottery.

“It looks like this is a great machine, a great system,” Realo President & CEO Rob Bizzell said of the bright yellow terminal, which is the size of a small vending machine and was installed next to the cash register in the downtown Kinston store on Queen Street.

Local residents can purchase lottery tickets at gas stations, supermarkets, convenience stores and other establishments all over town, but Realo has not offered the lottery in the past because of the time and effort needed for cashiers to sell the tickets.

“The new machine will streamline the amount of effort my staff has to put into it,” Bizzell said.

While lottery players can purchase scratch-off tickets from automated dispensers now, the LTG machine allows them to buy scratch-off tickets, scan play slips if they want to pick their own numbers or play online games using a touch screen on the machine.

Players must also run their driver’s license or state identification cards through a reader on the machine to confirm they are of age to play — lottery players must be at least 18 years old.

“It’s easy for the player and it’s easy for the retailer,” said Alice Garland, spokeswoman for the N.C. Education Lottery.

Several games, such as those that require coins or combo plays, cannot be played on the LTG machine; customers must purchase those tickets from a cashier, and a terminal was installed at the Realo check-out counter for that purpose.

Representatives of the Lottery and LTG machine manufacturer GTECH Corp. — GTECH, based in Rhode Island, supplies machines and operates the games for lotteries in North Carolina and a number of other states — assembled in Realo’s Queen Street store Tuesday to install the machine and train store owners and staff on its operation.

Several customers looked on with curiosity.

Katherine Jarman of La Grange said she regularly plays scratch-off games.

“If you play scratch-off enough, then I guess everybody will be playing it,” she said of the new machine.

Sharonda Williams of Kinston said she does not play the lottery, but many of the clients she has as a home health Certified Nursing Assistant are regular players, and that Realo would be a good location for them to get their tickets.

“This is a good place, because they can get their medicines and personal items in one spot,” she said.

Realo will also install the machines in its Vernon Avenue and Trenton stores next month.

David Anderson can be reached at 252-559-1077 or danderson@freedomenc.com.