How secure are your lottery tickets?
Most of us know that lottery operators and regulators ensure that lotteries are conducted in the public’s best interest for a very high degree of honesty, transparency, and integrity. Every product used to produce each lottery draw is regulated and approved. That even includes the paper that the lottery ticket itself is printed on.
The Standard of Lottery Ticket Paper
Lottery operators and regulators have very distinct minimal standards that suppliers of lottery ticket paper have to meet to ensure that each and every lottery ticket that is printed is legitimate and valid. To do this, the paper itself has to be manufactured to specific standards as specified by each gaming commission jurisdiction. On average, there always must be at least one type of anti-counterfeiting/anti-altering measure embedded in the paper stock, but two or more measures ensure a more secure product. These security measures are very subtle and not easily noticeable by players.
The paper must contain the lottery operator's logo, and their authorized graphics and colours to identify it as that operator’s product and that it stands out from other operator’s lottery tickets, so that at a quick glance it can be determined not only which lottery operator the ticket belongs to but also what lottery game it is for.
This paper is the only one that can be used as supplied by an authorized and vetted lottery paper manufacturer. The supplier must be licenced to produce and deliver the paper rolls to the operator, and must have stringent security measures at their own manufacturing facility.
The paper also must be of high sensitivity to be able to be used by a high speed terminal printer. There also has to be high contrast of the paper to provide the best bar code readability to ensure a minimal amount of misreads. It must be able to stand up to both physical and environmental influences, and maintain a long life of image durability as winning tickets are valid to be redeemed up to a year from the draw date.
Ticket Printing
As for printing the ticket, the name of the lottery operator must be shown on the ticket. There also has to be identification of the retailer player terminal or station that the ticket was issued and printed at. The time and date of the printing of the ticket must also be on it, as well a validation number and identifying bar codes that not only contain the information above but also include the numbers selected for that draw.
The bar code must be easily readable by the retailer terminal, ticket validation reader at lottery kiosks, and smartphones for online ticket validation. All other printed matter must be clear and readable to be able for investigators to quickly verify the legitimacy of any winning lottery ticket.
Security measures must be in place to ensure the protection of the safety and integrity of the paper from the manufacture to the operator to the retailer. Paper needs to be stored under camera surveillance and lock and key anytime it is left alone. In fact, once the paper ends up at the retailer, it must be kept secure and locked up before being used and after being changed out to an empty printer.
These safety features ensure a lottery ticket that is secure, authentic, and not easily altered or tampered with. Which means that when you buy a ticket, as long as you sign it and keep it safe, it will be a very easy task to verify the ticket when it wins the big one for you.