Lottery releases all financial information
Tuesday, March 21, 2006 posted 12:44 PM EST
Gamblers have put more money into a TouchPlay machine on Southwest Ninth Street in Des Moines than into any other slot machine-like device in the state since July 2005, according to records newly released by the Iowa Lottery.
The lottery on Monday released detailed financial information about all 6,101 machines in operation from July 2005 until March 11. Meanwhile, Gov. Tom Vilsack signed legislation saying the machines must be removed by early May.
The records paint a clearer picture of where TouchPlay gambling is taking place.
The top machine in Iowa is operated by Hawkeye Commodity of Hudson and located at the Jiffy convenience store at 3718 S.W. Ninth St. in Des Moines. It has generated $341,263 in sales since July.
The business has two of the top money-generating machines in Iowa during the time span. Gamblers put more than $600,000 into those two machines .
That area of Southwest Ninth Street has seen a lot of gambling in recent months. Another store, Kum & Go at 4001 S.W. Ninth St., saw $247,442 wagered in one of its TouchPlay machines in that time period.
The Kum & Go at 821 E. Euclid Ave. in Des Moines, which had the top machine under the information previously released by the lottery, moved to the No. 2 spot. That single machine saw $319,803 worth of sales.
Lee Adams, co-owner of the Jiffy stores, said he was not surprised that his Southwest Ninth Street store was tops.
Fifteen of Adams' Jiffy stores are home to 60 TouchPlay machines.
"People just enjoy them. I was at a store this morning, there was four people playing and three people back there chatting. People were just laughing and having a good time. I really think it has been a good social thing for people," Adams said. The ban "is going to be devastating."
Records for about half of the TouchPlay machines were made public earlier this month by the Iowa Lottery after they were part of a request made under Iowa's open records law by The Des Moines Register. But site-specific information about sales at more than 3,000 machines was not released because of pending litigation.
About 40 companies filed lawsuits asking a judge to block the release of information regarding their businesses, saying it would place them at a competitive disadvantage.
On Thursday, District Judge Donna Paulsen ordered the lottery to release the data, saying it was of public interest.
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