A bill has been proposed by a member of the Delaware House of Representatives which could provide a boost to physical stores in the US state.
House Bill 335 would amend Title 29 of the Delaware Code relating to the state lottery, meaning online lottery players would initially have to buy a prepaid card in a retail store.
It has been introduced by William Bush IV, a Democratic member of the Delaware House of Representatives who represents district 29.
Delaware Lottery’s push on innovation
The Delaware Lottery has been on somewhat of a mass technological expansion in recent years, leading to more and more of its players migrating to its online services.
Since the state began to offer an affiliate programme for companies to generate revenue from linked iLottery players in 2025 through Scientific Games, cumulative retail sales since its launch have grown by $7m (£5.32m) to $158m in the last eight months.
In early 2024, the Delaware Lottery also launched mobile sports betting in collaboration with Rush Street Interactive, once again pointing to a push towards a heavily-focused online business.
Then in October 2025, the organisation partnered with Malta-based B2B solutions provider Wazdan to leverage the company’s portfolio of slot games.
While this may have led to a more favourable-looking bottom line for the Delaware Lottery, it could have had a detrimental effect on the state’s brick and mortar businesses, according to Bush.
“The lottery department is getting ready to move a lot of our sales that take place currently at small stores, such as your Powerball tickets, your Mega Millions, your daily plays – they’re all being moved where they can be sold online,” he said.
“The fiscal impact that is out there is large… I just think it’s a very, very important thing that we protect our small businesses.”
Bush also added concerns that new iLottery players may never be aware of the positive impact that purchasing lottery tickets in-store could have on the retail industry.
However, if Bill 335 passes, iLottery revenue could drop from over $5m to between $3-4m.