Lottery Ticket Dispensing Unit with a Shuttle Separator Device

A lottery ticket dispensing unit for dispensing a continuous strip of lottery tickets, comprising:

• at least one ticket compartment;
• a separation module in which a leading ticket of the continuous strip of lottery tickets is separated and dispensed, the separation module comprising:
• a drive roller and an opposed idler roller with a nip defined between the driver roller and idler roller;
• a motor geared to the drive roller;
• an automatic separator device, wherein the drive roller conveys the leading ticket to a separation position such that a line between the leading ticket and an adjacent ticket is presented to the separator device;
• the separator device further comprising a shuttle that travels in a linear path along the line, the shuttle comprising a head that engages and separates the leading ticket from the adjacent ticket along the line;
• and
• a bi-directional drive mechanism configured with the shuttle to move the shuttle back and forth along the linear path.