Colorado Lottery bringing credit card & app access, some experts concerned about addiction
Michael Logerwell
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – Soon, players of the Colorado Lottery won’t need to carry cash to have their chance of winning big. This week, the Colorado Lottery Commission announced it will allow players to purchase lotto tickets with credit cards and on their phones.
“Our whole mission is based around consumers and consumer choice. Consumers these days, as you know, carry less cash. Many of them prefer transactions with credit cards or debit cards,” the Director of the Colorado Lottery, Tom Seaver, told KRDO13.
Seaver said this week’s rule change is all about the consumer. Almost everyone has had the experience of wanting to buy a lottery ticket but then realizing they don’t have any cash. Seaver and the lottery are looking to stop that near-universal experience and make it easier to access the lottery.
The two new rules will now allow lottery tickets to be purchased with credit cards and enable the lottery to sell directly to consumers through the Colorado Lottery app.
However, one local gambling addiction counselor says that access is a double-edged sword.
“I just know that accessibility is one of the biggest triggers for people having access to funds, having access to the gambling itself. And when it’s on your phone, it’s like like we’ve seen with the sports betting, you can do it from anywhere,” Kristen Haflett has been counseling people with gambling addictions in Colorado since 2011. In that time, she’s seen a rise in clients as easier betting avenues have opened up.
KRDO13 asked Seaver and the Lottery about the safety measures that will be in place when the new rules are implemented.
“We’re encouraged by the fact that other lotteries have already crossed this bridge, and that’s really important because we can talk to them about what kind of safety measures and what kind of, you know, controls can be put on this to help make sure that we protect player health,” Seaver said. He didn’t have the specifics on what guardrails would be put in place because they just started working on implementing the new rules.
Haflett said that she’d like to see the ability for consumers to put deposit and screen time limits on the app when ticket purchases are available. Seaver did say those features would be looked at.
“The accessibility is really concerning, and just the disconnect it creates for people with money, that when you use a credit card, you’re not thinking about the connection with your finances like it’s delayed. You don’t have that automatic pain of spending that money on something,” Haflett said.
While the rule change was passed this week, consumers won’t see the change for some time. Seaver said that it will take some months for both changes to go into effect, but couldn’t provide a specific timeline.
If you or someone you know is addicted to gambling, KRDO13 has listed out several local and state resources below: