New Technology Helps C-stores Modernize Lottery Sales for the COVID-19 World

LAS VEGAS — Scientific Games Corp. (SCiQ) is enabling lottery retailers to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic by helping convenience stores operators modernize the customer experience, reduce staff labor hours and reimagine how lottery instant scratch games are sold.

This includes streamlining the purchasing process and creating operational procedures critical to new in-store health and safety standards, the company said.

"COVID-19 is making c-stores and other retailers take a good, hard look at how every product in store is sold, both from a health and safety standpoint, and from an operational modernization standpoint," said Randall Lex, vice president, retail sales for Scientific Games. "This is a very good time to make much needed changes to how lottery instant games are sold, and SCiQ modernizes it from every aspect. SCiQ encompasses business intelligence elements from our award-winning lottery self-service technology while alternatively allowing consumers to social distance from the ordering process, with only the clerk touching the screens."

SCiQ technology allows c-store customers to make quick and easy instant game purchases at the checkout counter. This also allows retailers to benefit from staff cost savings and an uptick in instant game sales, according to the company. SCiQ is currently in stores in approximately one dozen U.S. states.

To sell instant games using the SCiQ ecosystem, a store employee simply uses the digital ordering screen to select the games customers request and dispense tickets with the touch of a button.

"SCiQ eliminates the challenges to purchasing and selling lottery instant games and, up until now, there has never been technology that automated this for c-store customers and retailers at the check-out," Lex said. "The SCiQ ecosystem also offers customers the ability to advance-order games via mobile device and further reduces their time in-store.

SCiQ automatically tracks every unit of product sold in real-time, providing greater visibility into sales performance and available inventory. It also automates the shift accounting reconciliation process, reducing the staff labor necessary to manage the category in-store.

"Scientific Games is responsive to lottery retailer needs and we are continually seeking opportunities to modernize the in-store experience and reduce operational hurdles," Lex concluded.