Lottery Module Overview

Lottery Module Overview

Read this article once before you use the other Lottery screens. It teaches you the few terms used everywhere else: pack, bin, safe, online, instant.

What is a "pack"?

A pack is one full book of scratch-off tickets you receive from the lottery commission.

Every pack contains:

  • A fixed number of tickets at one price — for example, 150 tickets at $2 each
  • A pack number unique to that book
  • A barcode on every ticket that the system reads to know which pack and ticket it is

When CStoreiQ says "you have 40 packs in bins", that means 40 books of scratch-offs, not 40 individual tickets.

Note: A pack is also called a "book" — same thing.

The four pack states

At any moment, every lottery pack in your store is in one of four states:

State What it means Can a customer buy from it?
Confirmed Just received from the lottery — in your back-office storage No
Active On the counter in a numbered slot (bin), ready to sell Yes
Inactive Was on the counter, you took it off No
Returned Sent back to the lottery — gone from your inventory No

You move packs between these states using the Lottery menu screens:

  • Confirm Pack → moves a new pack into Confirmed (back office)
  • Activate Pack → moves a pack into Active (on the counter)
  • Inactivate Pack → moves a pack back to Inactive (off the counter)
  • Return Pack → moves a pack to Returned (gone forever)

Bin vs Safe — where is each pack?

There are two places a pack can live:

Bin — A numbered slot in your in-counter lottery dispenser. Customers see these. Each slot holds one pack. The number is printed on the dispenser. When CStoreiQ asks for the "Bin #", look at the slot you put the pack in.

Safe — Everything that is not in a bin. Your back-office storage. Both Confirmed (newly received) and Inactive (taken off the counter) packs live here.

Two types of lottery — Online and Instant

The lottery commission sells two completely different products:

Online lottery — Draw games like Powerball, Mega Millions. The lottery terminal prints a paper ticket on demand. You don't track individual packs.

Instant lottery (also called Scratch-off) — Paper scratch tickets pulled from a pack in a bin. This is the one you track in CStoreiQ — confirm, activate, move, return.

Every screen that shows sales splits them into these two categories: Online and Instant / Scratchoff.

How money moves with the lottery commission

The lottery commission settles with you every week, not every day.

  1. Every business day, you run Day Close in CStoreiQ. You type in what your lottery terminal printed and scan each pack.
  2. Every weekend, the seven days roll up into a Weekly Settlement — one Total Net Due figure.
  3. On your store's EFT day (configured per store under Setup → Store Lottery Setup), the lottery commission either pulls (you owe them) or deposits (they owe you) that amount. EFT = Electronic Funds Transfer — it's the bank-to-bank money movement.

The Weekly Settlement screen shows what you'll owe — it doesn't move the money itself.

Where every number comes from

Every figure shown on a Lottery screen has one source of truth:

Source Examples
Entered by you Game number, pack number, bin number, today's terminal totals
Provided by the lottery commission Game name, ticket price, official pack values, EFT day, your commission rate
Calculated by the system Pack value = tickets × price. Sold quantity = end ticket − begin ticket.

If a number does not match what you expect, the correction is made at the source — re-enter the terminal totals at Day Close, update the game definition, or rescan the pack.

What's next

    • Related Articles

    • Lottery Dashboard

      A single-screen overview of where the lottery operation stands right now at one store: today's sales, today's payouts, how many packs are active, what needs your attention, and one-click access to every action in the module. Open this first thing in ...

    • Lottery Inventory

      A live, read-only snapshot of every lottery pack at one store — what's in the bins (sellable), what's in the safe (not sellable), and what each is worth. This is your audit tool: it answers the questions "how many packs do we have right now?" and ...

    • Promotions Overview

      Promotions Overview The Promotions section in CStoreiQ is where you create and manage your store's own promotional deals — including price groups, combo deals, mix & match offers, and loyalty pricing. Navigate to: Sidebar → Price Book → Promotions ...

    • Altria Pricing Overview

      Altria Pricing Overview Navigate to Altria Pricing in the left sidebar (under Price Book) to access the manufacturer deal management interface. This is where all Altria tobacco deals are configured and managed. ? Note: All Altria deals are synced ...

    • Altria's Digital Trade Program (DTP) Overview

      Altria's Digital Trade Program (DTP) Overview Altria's Digital Trade Program (DTP) is a multi-tier incentive program designed to reward retailers who participate in tobacco scan data reporting, loyalty programs, and digital engagement through their ...