Less than a month after Novamedia of the Netherlands launched its good-causes lottery from Curaçao, a second European lottery group has launched a charity lottery of its own.
On Tuesday, Globelot Charity Foundation launched "Everyone Wins," an Internet lottery based in Liechtenstein. The lottery is operated by the Lottery Concept Company, a privately owned Danish group founded in 2000, and supplied by the International Lottery of Liechtenstein Foundation (ILLF), a government-approved and licensed lottery distributor.
The Globelot Charity Foundation, a non-profit foundation based in Liechtenstein, is headed by an independent board of directors. The current beneficiaries are CARE, WWF, Human Rights Watch and the International Federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent.
The Globelot lotteries are authorized and controlled by the government of Liechtenstein, a sovereign state in the heart of Europe. The tickets, which are sold exclusively through servers located in Liechtenstein, are distributed within the European Economic Area under the E.U. rule of Free Movement of Services.
Globelot is a European Internet lottery initiative and its promotion is focused on European countries. The group has stated through its press material that it will "use all technical means possible to exclude participants from countries and states where lotteries are banned by law."
The Globelot SIXplusONE charity lottery has been developed in cooperation with the participating non-governmental organizations that also take part in the marketing of the charity.
A minimum of 25 percent of the stake in Globelot lotteries is paid to the Globelot Charity Foundation for imbursement to the participating charities and organizations.
A minimum 55 percent is paid to the players as prizes. The stake is all payments made for a draw.
The grand SIX numbers plus ONE Bonus Ball match pays a prize of 20 million euros (paid in 40 equal yearly installments of 500,000 euros), and the SIX numbers match pays 2 million euros (paid in 40 equal yearly installments of 50,000 euros). Winners may
opt to get a lump sum of 10 million or 1 million euros respectively. These prices are insured by a Lloyds of London broker.
The weekly drawing of the Globelot SIXplusONE charity lottery is audited by Ernst & Young AG Vaduz, a member of Ernst & Young International.
Management
Steen W. Hamburger, the managing director of the Lottery Concept Company, founded the Globelot project in April 2000. Hamburger's background is in German and Danish marketing.
Serving on the board are Dr. Peter Sprenger, Morten Aaboe and Michael Johnston. Sprenger, a doctor of law since 1985, is a partner in Administral Anstalt and member of the Parliament of Liechtenstein. He has formerly been president for the Court of Appeals for administrative matters and vice president of the Supreme Court in Liechtenstein. Aaboe is the director of Aaboe Co., a management consultancy based in Paris. Johnston is president of U.S.-based consultancy HJC New Media and an expert in fund raising as well as the use of the Internet by non-profit agencies.
Operational Environment
Server Room - The TM server room is a purpose-built Grade 1 computing environment with dual, high-capacity, under-floor air conditioners keeping the temperature stable and Inergen (Argonaut) fire protection systems. The power supply is backed with dual uninterruptible power supplies linked to a 30Kw diesel generator.
Disaster Recovery - A fully functional off-site disaster recovery facility is in place 10 km from the main server center. This facility has up-to-date copies of all data and is linked via wireless network to the primary site.
Internet Connections - Globelot peers with the Internet as an autonomous system with three independent backbones (UUNET, GlobalOne and IP Plus). It manages its own BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) sessions with the backbones giving it the ability to react to localized problems on the Internet by rerouting traffic where necessary. Each line runs at E1 (2 MB) speed, and further capacity is available at short notice. Graphics are served through a network of 8000 servers around the world provided by AkamaiTM. This ensures that customers always receive their graphics and other "heavy" content from the closest server to them.
Resilience - All server equipment is configured in redundant clusters to provide the highest possible resilience. This includes firewalls, routers, utility and database servers. Web servers are accessed through a pair of BiglP2 load balancing systems that enable Globelot to add new servers very quickly, and load balance across multiple servers.
PlusLotto
Globelot isn't the only good-causes lottery operated out of Liechtenstein. PlusLotto is fully licensed by the government of Liechtenstein and claims to be the world's first Internet lottery. Its first draw took place Oct. 7, 1995. The lottery offers a weekly 6/49 lottery with a current guaranteed jackpot of US$20 million. It's fully audited by Ernst & Young AG, Vaduz and its weekly jackpot is guaranteed by a Lloyds of London insurance broker. The back ends for both Globelot and PlusLotto are handled by Zabadoo.com A.G. in Liechtenstein.
Under the terms of the PlusLotto license--and in addition to the amount donated to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies--a minimum of 5 percent of proceeds are donated to charities at the discretion of the Charity Allocation Committee, which is controlled by the Liechtenstein government. As a result, up to 40 percent of its gross revenue may be used for charitable programs around the world.
Everyone wins. Especially the Red Cross.