DES MOINES -- Iowa Lottery officials are preparing to release thousands of financial records regarding the TouchPlay program on Friday despite some businesses taking legal action to keep the information private.

Lee Enterprises and other media organizations have asked lottery officials to provide data about the video gambling machines under the federal Freedom of Information Act.

The lottery does not own the machines, and estimates private businesses have invested $100 million in the program.

Bill Wohlers of New Hampton-based Redline Vending, a TouchPlay distributor said he expected to file legal action Thursday to keep the company's business records private. He said the public has a right to know information about the program, but not each individual machine.

The records being provided by the lottery include weekly revenue totals for each TouchPlay machine.

"If we are identifying high volume locations, we're obviously putting them in a position where they might be attractive to the criminal element to target that particular establishment," Wohlers said.

TouchPlay retailer Curt Green filed a request for an injunction in Polk County District Court arguing the information is confidential and not public record under Iowa law. The lawsuit says the release of the information would give an unfair advantage to competitors.

"The disclosure of the evidence in the format requested serves no public purpose, and thus would not be in the public interest," his lawsuit states.

Mark Jacobs of B&B Games also has filed legal injunction in response to the records request.

Lottery Vice President Mary Neubauer said close to 126,000 records will be released in the format of a CD-ROM to news organizations Friday. The information will not include that of companies who have taken legal action to stop it, she said.

On the advice of the Iowa Attorney General's office, lottery officials notified participating TouchPlay businesses that their records had been requested in a Feb. 17 letter, giving them time to take legal action to stop the release.

Neubauer said lottery sales information typically is considered public information, but said the information requested this time also includes information about private business transactions.

"This is a different situation than we have had in the past," Neubauer said.

Iowa House Speaker Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City, said the sooner lottery officials provide lawmakers with the information, the sooner lawmakers can take action on the TouchPlay issue.

Legislators are trying to ascertain the level of investment already made by Iowa firms and how much of that investment has been recouped, he said.

"That's the number that nobody can seem to lay their hands on," Rants said.

A bill banning the TouchPlay machines could be considered by the full House later this month, Rants said.

Meanwhile, another bill that would earmark TouchPlay revenues for rural economic development projects cleared the House Economic Growth Committee this week.

Rep. Steve Olson, R-DeWitt, said the bill he sponsored would send TouchPlay revenues to counties of populations of less than 25,000 to help create jobs.

"I'm backing it, but with the fate of the TouchPlay machines in limbo, who knows whether it's going to go any further," he said.

Contact Charlotte Eby at (515) 243-0138 or chareby@aol.com.