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The Iowa Lottery completed a major changeover this past weekend to a new operating system. Lottery spokesperson, Mary Neubauer, says it gives them updated technology.
“This is a huge project the lottery only takes on about once a decade — because it involves replacing all of the equipment that the lottery has in the field. So, all the lottery terminals, all the self-checkers, the lighted jackpot signs, and then the central communications backbone that links them all in real time,” Neubauer says.
She says they began preparing for the network changeover with some new equipment. “Earlier this year, the red lottery terminals that folks were used to seeing in stores started to be replaced with new black and white terminals, and the printers that went along with them, and the self-checkers– that was all replaced,” she says.
Neubauer says the machines in some 2,400 retail outlets were all changed during the updgrade. “The lottery terminals are a little bit faster than the old ones. The tickets that are printed have a higher resolution — so everything is easier to read on the tickets,” Neubauer says.
The one-billion-dollar jackpot in January showed a flaw in the lottery signs that has been fixed with the new signs. “Our signs pertty much just topped out at 999 million — as if that wasn’t enough money right? But we just couldn’t keep up with the higher amounts. And now the new jackpot signs can go up into the billions if that is needed,” she says.
Neubauer says the change over to new technology helps the Iowa Lottery with the behind-the-scenes things that go on to keep the statewide network going.
