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Keen for a Kwikie? Lottery offends with ticket branding

March 20 2013 at 08:00am

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Convenience store owners in Maine are worried that the state lottery is rebranding its scratch-off lottery tickets as “Kwikies”.

“It’s going to be real uncomfortable for my girls behind the register to have guys come in and say, ‘Hey, give me a Kwikie,’” David Welch, the owner of Village Market, told the Bangor Daily News this week after the Maine State Lottery informed him of the plan.

“It’s highly inappropriate,” Kaylee Constable, an employee, added. “[Customers] come in and joke around with me and say, ‘Can I get a Kwikie?’ I’m only 19 years old, and I have… 50-year-old men saying sexual remarks to me.”

The newspaper provided some helpful context: “In slang terms, a quickie is a short sexual encounter.” But state lottery officials say the origin of the new name has nothing to do with sex.

“The benefit of buying this ticket is that it’s quick, easy and fun,” Gerry Reid, a director at the Maine Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages and Lottery Operations, said. “That’s what an instant ticket is.”

The lottery sells tickets, priced between $1 (R9.20) and $20, at 1 300 retailers, generating $30 million a year for the state’s general fund.

The newspaper interviewed a cashier who tested the new name by asking customers if they would like a Kwikie. “I tried that on a couple of women,” Tom Borden at Fox Brook Variety said. “It didn’t go over very well.” – Sapa-AP


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