Looking to fill that fill that precious time while putting gas into your car? A new proposal in California would allow customers to buy lottery tickets from the same machine that pumps their gas.
"It takes like about 30 seconds to actually buy your lottery tickets," California Lottery spokesman Russ Lopez said about the proposal. "So it's not going to hold up the line."
Local affiliate ABC News 10 reports that customers could use their credit or debit cards to purchase the tickets. Customers would be limited to three games: Mega Millions, Powerball, and Super Lotto Plus.
If approved, the ability to purchase lottery tickets directly from the gas pump would be added to between 100 and 150 stations in the state, mostly in Los Angeles and Sacramento.
But perhaps most interestingly, any winnings of $600 or less would then be instantly credited to the debit or credit card used in the transaction.
Lopez says the state lottery commission has gotten positive feedback from gas station owners, who both welcome the new business and say it would cut down on people waiting in line inside the station's store for other products.
"Statistics show that 72 or 73 percent of people just go out and pump gas, they don't walk into a retail store. So this is another way to capture that business," Lopez said.
Proponents also say it would generate more tax income for the state. In 2013, state lottery sales generated $1.28 billion funds for K-12 public education . About one-third of total state lottery sales go to education, with a smaller percentage of those totals also going to community colleges and the state university system .
California has the 7th largest lottery system in the country. The top revenue generating state for lottery ticket sales is New York, which also gives a significant portion of its sales to state education funds. The New York state educational system received $3.04 billion last year from lottery sales.
