New Bern man wins $1 million lottery prize

3/22/2018 08:59 - Mike S.

From a marketing and sales perspective, the Keno “Stay and Play” strategy is ridiculous. Restaurants make money by seat turnover. No restaurant is going to base their business model on having people occupy seats playing Keno instead of buying their primary product – food. And eliminating thousands of convenience stores from selling Keno because they don’t have a seating area makes no sense at all. People go to a convenience store for…convenience. They go in, get what they want and leave. Retailers are not going to trade merchandizing floor space for seating so they can sell Keno. It’s a draw game, people will buy Keno tickets and check them later just like all other draw games. Get rid of the seating rule and instantly add thousands of Keno outlets. The strategy and implementation teams obviously did not think this through in terms of business sense. It’s like not selling gas to a station because they are on a 2 lane road instead of a 4 lane highway - great business model!!!

3/20/2018 01:57 - Mike S.

As revealed in the Dec 5th, 2017 Commissioners meeting minutes, the commissioners were told as part of the retailers qualification process for selling Keno that "Retailers must have a seated area where food is being served to customers." This is not true in any form or fashion. I know of 3 local retailers that have no food service whatsoever, 1 is a private club (bar), 1 is a public bar and the other is a Bingo establishment. Why would the commissioners be told such a blatant falsehood? NC Lottery
Hey, Mike. Keno is new. At this time the lottery believes it will be most successful in “play and stay” retail locations. When Keno started in October, the lottery allowed some flexibility. Your retail locations may be some of those. The lottery is working now with our Keno retailers to ensure the game is a good fit. Our goal is to continue to recruit Keno retailers so that more North Carolinians have a chance to play this fun and exciting game.