News

Alaska lottery kiosks put on hold by regulation

An Alaskan startup is attempting to sell lottery and raffle tickets from kiosks. However, recent legislation has halted development.

January 25, 2016

A startup in Skagway, Alaska, is attempting to deploy kiosks that sell raffle tickets to visitors for fundraising. However, recent regulation on raffles has prevented the startup from proceeding with its plans, according to a report by Newsminer.

Siblings Greg and Olivia Klupar in 2014 ran a raffle for nonprofit Skagway Arts Council, which targeted tourists who came in from cruise ships. Following this partnership, they planned to develop their own custom kiosks to sell raffle tickets. However, with recent regulation in 2015 from the Alaskan legislature, they lost their raffle license.

"We had exhausted all of our resources and just couldn't get anyone in the government to respond to us," Olivia Klupar said. However, the pair was able to get in contact with state representative Sam Kito III, who introduced a bill after hearing their story. This bill would allow businesses to use kiosks or vending machines to sell raffle and lottery tickets.

"There is an age restriction on pull tabs," Kito said. "There is no age restriction on buying or selling lottery tickets." Ken Alper, director of the department of revenue's tax division, also wishes to allow businesses to operate these types of kiosks.

"Since these sort of kiosks are open to the public and not necessarily supervised, we want to ensure that any activities that may be allowed on them are only those for which there is no specific age restriction," Alper said.