State officials are asking legislators to ban private companies from selling Iowa lottery tickets and games online. Tyler Ackerson of the Iowa Department of Revenue says businesses called lottery couriers are operating websites and smart phone apps.
Jake Ketzner (KEHTZ-ner) — a lobbyist for Lotto-dot-com — says the company started selling Nebraska lottery products online this week and would like to operate in Iowa at some point.
State officials have already turned down an application from Jackpocket, a New York based lottery courier that wanted to start selling Iowa lottery games online. Tim Coonan (COO-nun) is a lobbyist for Jackpocket, which is owned by sports betting giant DraftKings.
According to the Iowa Department of Revenue, parts of already existing state law prohibit online lottery sales, but the agency’s asking the legislature to include an outright ban in a bill dealing with routine tax matters. The chairman of the Senate’s tax policy committee says the debate about online lottery ticket sales should probably be held in a different committee.
