Afghan Lottery Restarts After Six-Year Hiatus
In another sign that the Taliban have vacated Afghanistan, the country's lottery resumed Aug. 1 after being banned since 1996.
For more than a decade, the Afghan Red Crescent had operated a lottery to fund humanitarian causes.
At the resumption of the lottery, more than 5,000 residents of Kabul flooded the city's stadium to witness the drawing of the numbers, which took place out of two steel drums. The drawing was supervised by the president of the Afghan Red Crescent and government ministers.
The lottery's first grand prize was US$4,000. Secondary prizes included a used Toyota and color televisions.
National Lottery A Distant Possibility in Australia
Tattersalls will continue to hold the public lottery license in the Australian state of Victoria until 2007, at which time a national lottery license could be put up for grabs.
On July 23, the Victorian government confirmed that it has extended Tattersalls' license, subject to the payment of a premium of AU$3 million from Tattersalls to the government.
John Lenders, the acting minister for gaming in Victoria, said that because of the new arrangement, the lottery licenses for both Victoria and New South Wales will expire around the same time, opening a void that a national lottery could fill.
"We believe a national competitive lotteries market will substantially benefit consumers who can purchase their favorite lotto game no matter where they travel," he said.
National Lottery Distribution Up to Players
Tessa Jowell, secretary of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport in the United Kingdom, told punters in late July that choosing the charities the National Lottery benefits will be up to them.
Her announcement occurred on the heels of a consultation paper that will change the distribution methods of the National Lottery.
The distribution of lottery funds has been criticized in the past as being too London-centric.
"Just as Camelot are adapting the way in which the game is played, so the government wants to review how the proceeds are shared out," she said. "Our priority is to ensure that the benefits of the lottery are shared fairly among all communities and in all parts of the country."
Camelot Extends Global Crossing Network
Global Crossing Ltd. has been awarded a seven-year renewal of its contract to operate the network of Camelot Group plc, which runs the U.K. National Lottery.
Global Crossing, which has managed the network since the beginning of the National Lottery, had its contract extended after Camelot found out its own contract on the game had been extended.
Former Porn King Goes Lotto
A British dot-com millionaire who hit the jackpot with an online porn search engine is hoping an Internet lottery will be his next chance at success.
Benjamin Cohen, who is 20, founded Hunt4porn.com, the United Kingdom's first search engine for pornography. Before that, he created portal and search engine CyberBritain.com and Sojewish.com.
Now Cohen is branching out into online gambling with a new lottery Web site, Numbermatch.com. The game, which is free, asks users to enter their cell phone numbers (and receive text message advertisements) for a chance to win £100,000.