In the US, is it legal to deny someone the purchase of a lotto ticket if they don't have a State Issued ID, but they present some other kind of ID?

If the law requires that you be 18 to buy a ticket, it is up to the seller/distributor of the tickets to use his own methods for determining that someone is indeed 18.

I would have either gone someplace else to purchase a ticket, or would have asked someone with the proper state ID to purchase a ticket, for me.

The seller was just trying to protect himself from any possible problems, from being falsely accused of selling something to a suspected underage person.

Why don’t you have a state ID or a driver’s license, or a US Passport?

I’m from New York City, so I don’t drive, and I’m at college, so I don’t have my passport.

A college ID is not a valid ID when it comes to legally determining age. You need a government issued ID. A state ID, driver’s license, passport, military ID, the list goes on. The point is it must come from the government to be valid.

The issue at hand is often along the lines of “how do they know you don’t have a friend who works in the campus office who made you the ID”. They don’t want to get caught out for something they thought was valid. They know what state IDs look like. And actually if you bring an out of state ID, sometimes they’ll grumble. Because they don’t have the look of ‘em memorized and can’t immediately spot a fake.

This is more true for alcohol, but also applies for lotto tickets.

You need to get a legal state ID card, so there is no doubt in the mind of anyone, who you are, and how old you are.

The person selling the lottery ticket needs to make sure that you’re actually 18, and gets to determine what forms of ID are valid. It’s legitimate to require a state driver’s license or certain types of state-issued ID card, because they’re hard to forge; it’s legitimate to not accept college IDs, because they’re notoriously easy to forge, and there are so many different types that it’s possible to make one up from scratch.

Interestingly enough, some state university IDs count as state-issued IDs—this is why my ID when I was in graduate school did not have my birthday on it, because otherwise it could have been used as proof of my age.

I won’t rent an apartment to someone without government issued ID, so I don’t see why a grocery store couldn’t be just a s strict. If you’re in college you need to get another form of ID. Either have your mom send you your passport or get a state id card. Student ID’s don’t cut it in the grown up world. I’m surprised you can cash a check.

Can you buy alcohol or cigarettes with your college ID? At any rate if you won, you would need a valid ID to collect. So if you plan on winning, you better get one. If you don’t think you are likely to win, just make a donation to the state tax commission. They don’t care how old tou are.

Welcome to adulthood. Time to adulthood. Time to get a state issued ID