ORLANDO, Fla. --Wawa Inc. has announced a milestone in its Florida development--a partnership with the Florida Lottery--which will add self-service lottery terminals to all existing and future Wawa stores in Florida.
The convenience store chain has committed to rolling out Florida Lottery vending machines to all new Wawa stores in the state going forward. The lottery will install self-service vending machines in all Florida Wawa stores by the end of August and will continue to install them in all new stores going forward. By the end of the year, Wawa will have 59 self-serve Lottery terminals in all of Wawa's Florida stores.
Available Florida Lottery games include Florida Lotto, Mega Millions, Powerball, Lucky Money, Fantasy 5, Play 4 and Cash 3.
"The Lottery's sole mission is to sell tickets to generate additional funding for education. I am extremely proud to welcome Wawa as our newest retail partner, and we look forward to a mutually beneficial relationship for many years to come," said Florida Lottery secretary Cynthia O'Connell.
Wawa also has self-service lottery machines in all 218 Pennsylvania, 236 New Jersey, and 69 Virginia stores. For fiscal year 2014, contributions as a result of ticket sales in Wawa stores to older Pennsylvanians, NJ Education and Virginia Education have reached more than $40 million.
"For our Florida customers, we are excited to partner with the Florida Lottery to help them 'Just Imagine' the possibilities with this new exciting convenience," said Chris Gheysens, Wawa's president and CEO. "Just Imagine, in five years, if Wawa is operating 200 stores in Florida, we would have the potential to contribute more than $20 million to education through Lottery sales in one year."
On Aug. 21, Wawa is celebrating the grand opening of Wawa's newest Orlando store. Along with the ribbon cutting, Hoagie competition and other events, Wawa's chief marketing officer, Carol Jensen, and Wawa's director of store operations, Todd Souders, will take center stage to discuss Wawa's expansion in Florida and the addition of the self-service lottery vending machines.
O'Connell will speak about the significance of Wawa stores offering lottery products, the Florida Lottery "Show Van" will make an appearance and a representative from a local beneficiary of the contributions made by the lottery to benefit education and scholarships will speak about the importance of continued funding received from the program.
Wawa and Florida Lottery officials will unveil a giant ticket symbolizing the official statewide launch.
Wawa, Pa.-based Wawa has more than 635 convenience stores (more than 365 offering gasoline) in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia and central Florida. It has more than 30 convenience stores throughout the Orlando and Tampa markets and 100 stores in the pipeline for continued construction.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.