Ireland Wants to Join Euromillions
Organizers of the Irish National Lottery are in talks with the lottery groups that are forming an international lottery called Euromillions.
The U.K. National Lottery, operated by Camelot, the Spanish lottery (Loterias y Apuestas de Estado) and the French lottery (La Francaise de Jeux) are planning to launch the international game early in 2004.
The Irish lottery would like to join, its director, Ray Bates, told Bizworld. Bates said the Irish National Lottery is competing for a small number of spots still remaining in the international group, since the three original lotteries that make up Euromillions put a limit on how many countries can join.
One half of all Euromillions ticketed sales will be returned to the buyers in the form of prizes, and about 12.5 percent of the sales will contribute to the jackpot of the major weekly drawing, which is expected to total EUR 15 million.
Ladbrokes Competes with the National Lottery
Last month, the U.K. National Lottery launched an online instant-win game, enabling players to participate in the game via the Internet. In response, Ladbrokes, the U.K.-based bookmaker, has upped the jackpot for its "Balls" game to £1 million.
Balls. a combination of a fixed-odds game and a lottery, features a drawing every minute. Before the move to increase the jackpot, the top prize for Balls was £100,000.
Ladbrokes also said that a larger percentage of the proceeds from ticket sales will be returned to players in the form of prizes than what the National Lottery redistributes as prize money.
The National Lottery is said to be starting a daily online lottery draw this fall.
Antigua PM Questions Lottery Agreement
Lester Bird, the prime minister of Antigua, told the country's parliament on March 13 that he is not satisfied with payments being made to Antigua by the Caribbean Lottery.
As per an agreement between Antigua and the lottery, the lottery should pay Antigua 11 percent of its gross income per month. Bird said that the lottery is behind with payments for the July-December 2002 time span.
"They still owe an outstanding amount, which has not been ascertained," Bird said
The prime minister also said he is dissatisfied with Antigua's arrangement with the Caribbean Lottery because there are no rules regarding late payments. It only states that the payment is due on the 25th of the following month. Bird said the Antigua government would investigate the situation.
European Lotteries Association Meeting June 8-12
The Czech Republic will host the second meeting of the European Lotteries Association from June 8-12 in Prague.
The meeting will take place at the Municipal House, in the center of the city. Additional information about the event can be found on www.elcongress2003.cz.