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Committee releases bill to bar state lottery from selling tickets online
Summary
A legislative committee voted to release AB3759, which would prohibit the state lottery commission or its contractors from directly selling lottery tickets via the Internet; small‑retailer groups testified that online sales would damage foot traffic and independent businesses.
A committee of the New Jersey General Assembly on Friday released Assembly Bill 3759, which would prohibit the state lottery commission, its entities or contractors from directly selling lottery tickets over the Internet while preserving registered courier services that deliver tickets.
Supporters told the panel the change is needed to protect small retailers who depend on lottery sales for customer traffic. "This will have a significant impact on our members that do sell lottery," said Mary Ellen Papar of the New Jersey Food Council, adding that it is "not just the sale" of tickets but "all the ancillary sales"—coffee, groceries and fuel—that flow from in‑store purchases.
Representatives of the gasoline convenience store and retail sectors echoed that argument. Eric Blondgren of the New Jersey Gasoline Convenience Store Association argued the lottery cannot both regulate and compete with its licensed retailers. "You can't ever be a judge in your own case," Blondgren said, describing a perceived conflict if the commission licensed itself as a retailer and marketed directly to consumers.
Bill Pascrell, representing a group of liquor‑store owners and the courier firm lotto.com, said the lottery's iLottery plans would create an "unlevel playing field" for more than 65,100 licensed retail outlets in the state and cited private investment in couriers as evidence that the market is complementary rather than cannibalistic.
Committee leadership moved the bill out of committee by voice and roll call. The release does not adopt the proposal into law; it clears the way for further amendments and full legislative consideration.
The bill's supporters said the legislation would preserve a retail distribution model in which local businesses receive modest commissions and customers buying tickets also purchase other items. Opponents were not prominent during the hearing on this item; committee members posed no substantive questions after testimony and voted to release the measure.
