SHERMAN OAKS— As of Friday, July 10, there has been a significant shortage of California Lottery Scratcher tickets. According to lottery officials, this may last several weeks. The impact of this is likely to result in millions of dollars lost in revenue.
The California Lottery’s Scratchers are games in which players rub their foil-covered tickets with a coin to reveal whether or not they have won. Tickets are typically sold at gas stations, convenience stores, and donut shops. Its price can range from $1 to $30, prizes are offered of up to $10 million.
The shortage has resulted from a slowdown of ticket distribution. The slower pace stems from social distancing orders to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in lottery distribution centers.
All seven of the lottery ticket vending machines at Sherman Oaks’ Fulton Square Liquors & Jr Market were empty. There have been no scratchers available for the past three weeks.
Blue Bird Liquor in Hawthorne is still waiting for their ticket order.
“I don’t have any scratchers for a month. That’s the business over here, the scratcher. Because we sell a lot of scratchers, we get a lot of winners from the scratchers, that’s why we’re waiting for the scratchers,” said employee Ronald Maren to ABC 7.
The Southern California distribution center in Rancho Cucamonga apparently closed on Thursday, July 9 for cleaning. Lottery officials have confirmed that a worker in this center tested positive for COVID-19.
The California State Lottery expressed in a statement: “There is an approximate four to five week delay in fulfilling retailer orders. We are currently implementing a number of strategies to mitigate the impacts and improve delivery time frames to meet the needs of our players and retailers.”
