CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The North Carolina Education Lottery is making it easier to buy lottery tickets by allowing customers to purchase them at the gas pumping screen.
“Play at the Pump” is the newest program from the N.C. Lottery that brings jackpot games outside of the convenient store. North Carolina is the fourth state to offer this service, behind California, Minnesota, and Missouri.
Players use that use their debit cards to buy gas are given an option of playing Powerball, Mega Millions, or Carolina Cash 5 and the ticket numbers are automated. According to the lottery, customers can only spend $70 on lottery tickets per week per debit card.
There is a $1 service charge that goes to the third-party vendor, Linq3, the lottery’s partner helping to provide the service. Linq3 verifies that the debit card owners are 18 or older. Any winnings under $600 are automatically sent to the account on the debit card, but bigger prizes must be collected in person.
“Play at the Pump” is currently available at about a dozen gas stations in the Charlotte area and at around 120 stations in North Carolina.
More information can be found at the North Carolina Education Lottery website.
