The ongoing saga over the operational effectiveness of the new National Lottery terminals continues, with the Convenience Stores & Newsagents Association highlighting the inefficiency of said terminals when checking winning numbers.
According to the CSNA, last week 'many stores had to revert to manually checking customers tickets for them to see if they were winners’.
This, in turn, the Association said, led to some customers making 'snide and totally unwarranted comments to us in the “how do I know that what you are saying is true” vein.'
In response, Premier Lotteries Ireland, which operates the National Lottery in Ireland, told Retail Intelligence, "PLI’s network of ticket checkers is providing service as normal. Plans to enhance terminal functionality to enable retailers to print ‘Not A Winner’ receipts is expected to be rolled out over the next month in line with planned timescales."
Premier added that this new functionality "is being added in addition to the standard receipt service following player and retail feedback. This is an additional transparency layer to give all players, particularly syndicates, peace of mind when they choose to check their tickets at the agents’ counter."
At the same time, however, the CSNA noted that the move to a higher price point for Lottery games, introduced as part of the 'Bigger Better Lotto' initiative in August, has been a success, 'in so far as the slight overall reduction in sales was outweighed by the additional revenues'.
© 2015 - Checkout Magazine by Stephen Wynne-Jones
