Capstone Drives Sustainability in the State of Massachusetts
Phone app hosted on AWS lets Massachussetts lottery winners claim prizes and save on gas
Massachussetts State Lottery
Since selling its first ticket in March 1972, the Massachusetts State Lottery has generated over $131 billion in revenues, awarded over $92 billion in prizes, returned over $28 billion in net profit to the Commonwealth for unrestricted local aid available to cities and towns, and paid over $7.5 billion in commissions and bonuses to its statewide network of retailers. The Mass Lottery has grown to become one of the most successful lotteries in the world by offering innovative and exciting games to its players.
Challenges
- Lottery Tickets over $601 can not be cashed when Claim Centers are closed due to COVID and are impacting the environment due to long distances being driven.
- Players should be able to scan tickets and submit winning tickets for payment remotely.
- Cloud environment needs to scale as number of players using the system increases.
- Secure Back Office for Payments, Reporting and Support.
- Winning Prizes need to be automatically deposited in Players’ bank accounts.
Solutions
- Deployed AWS services to support integrations into the Gaming system. Payment and financial infrastructure.
- Capstone was involved in designing, building, and deploying the solution, partnering with AWS. The AWS services deployed include Cognito, VPC, API Gateway, AWS EC2, RDS, SES, IAM, Dynamo DB and Lambda. The services provide a platform for fully integrated payment system, financial reporting, APIs for the mobile app, and customer support system.
Results
- Massachusetts State Lottery players have claimed over $10 million in prizes through the mobile cashing feature that launched on the Mass Lottery app in September, saving them over $55,000 in gasoline costs through the elimination of vehicle trips to Lottery claim centers, while also promoting sustainability and public health.
- Over 8,000 prize claims have been fulfilled through the app. Eliminating vehicle trips to Lottery claim centers for these transactions has preserved over 16,000 gallons of gas, resulting in a 316,000 pound reduction in carbon emissions.
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"Initially driven by its convenience and sustainability benefits, which remain significant, this initiative has provided our customers a viable option to avoid travel and exposure to others during COVID surges."
