Apparatus for dispensing a lottery ticket

A lottery ticket dispensing apparatus comprises: a transport mechanism to feed tickets along a dispensing path; a separator located along the dispensing path; at least one rotational feed roller contacting tickets upstream of the separator in the dispensing path to advance tickets towards the separator; at least one rotational discharge roller contacting tickets downstream of the separator in the dispensing path to discharge ticket from the separator; and an optical sensor 114, 116 to detect the location of a ticket as it moves along the dispensing path. The sensor may detect a leading edge of a conventional ticket. The sensor may comprise a light source and a light receiver which confirms the presence or absence of a ticket. The tickets 10 may be arranged to a strip 100, with a line of weakness 117 between adjacent tickets that can be broken by the separator. To allow a ticket having a translucent substrate to be dispensed from the apparatus, a patch or patches of an opaque or semi-opaque material 121, 122 is applied onto the ticket substrate at a location to cooperate with the sensor(s) 114, 116 while the apparatus is operating to enable correct detection of ticket location.