Gas Stations Beckon Gamblers With New Play At Pump Lottery Program
CAMPBELL (KCBS) -- Many gas station convenience stores sell lottery tickets, but at one station in Campbell, you don't even have to go inside.
After putting in your credit card at a Sunny Oaks Valero gas pump, you're asked if you want to buy a lottery ticket. It's part of Play at the Pump, a new California Lottery program slowly being rolled out across the state that let's drivers buy up to $20 worth of Quick Pick tickets straight from the pump.
But anti-gambling advocates say the program makes it easier to exploit poor residents, especially since it's the first time in California's 30-year-old lottery history that credit cards can be used for ticket purchases.
Several customers at the gas station said they were less than pleased with the new option.
"It's just insulting that we have to push these extra buttons for something we don't want when it's perfectly easy if we want it to go get it," one customer told KCBS. "So it makes everyone take time and think about it."
Another person found it annoying. "If I have to press gas only and not choose lottery, I'm never buying gas here any longer."
But others said they liked the convenience.
"I don't always like to run inside," a customer said. "I just like to get my gas and go."
Play at the Pump is currently only available at 87 stations in the state with the majority of them in the Sacramento and Los Angeles area, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Campbell is the only location in the Bay Area so far.
