Camelot Offers Tickets Online
The U.K. National Lottery started offering online ticket sales in December, and players have responded favorably.
The new service, which followed a weeklong trial, enables players to buy tickets for Wednesday and Saturday Lotto draws, as well as Daily Play.
Camelot, the lottery's operator, plans to extend the service to interactive television and mobile phones this year.
Camelot made its first venture online in November with the launch of Internet scratch cards and instant-win games.
Additional games, such as Thunderball, Lotto Extra and Lotto Hotpicks will also be made available online.
Future of International Lottery in Doubt
Plans to form an international lottery targeting players in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe and Australia are in doubt after political concerns among conglomerates.
More than 40 lottery partners signed a letter of intent to begin talks, but the negotiations broke down after the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003.
Edward J. Stanek, chairman of the International Lottery Alliance and the head of the Iowa lottery, confirmed that talks had broken down and that the creation of a lottery with jackpots reaching the billion-dollar mark for a single draw is a long shot.
"We were within a month of signing a contract with a deadline that was mutually set. A game had been designed," Stanek told the Wall Street Journal. "Within days [of the Iraqi invasion], four of the countries in Europe pulled back from the project, and said they were not in a position to move forward with it, and were indefinitely postponing their participation."
With four of the eight European nations out, other jurisdictions worried that U.S. players would dominate the winnings, he said. In short order, two-and-a-half years of planning came to a halt.
Europe-Wide Lottery on Track
Plans to launch a European-wide lottery during the first quarter of 2004, meanwhile, are moving forward.
Officials with the national lotteries of Spain, France and England are gearing up for the launch, and representatives with the Organismo Nacional de Loterías Apuestas del Estado (ONLAE), the Spanish national lottery, said they've been approached by charitable groups.
The Spanish national association for the blind, Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles (ONCE), which currently runs one of the country's largest lotteries, reportedly asked the Spanish government for permission to sell tickets for the new European lottery at its 23,000 lottery outlets.
The lottery is ONCE's main financial source. The organization is already suffering the negative effect of illegal Internet lottery draws and games, with sales of its own lottery expected to decline by 3 percent.
Thai Woman Busted with Illegal Lotto Tickets
The Magistrates Court fined a 33-year-old Thai woman $500 or a month in jail this week after she pleaded guilty to having several public lottery tickets in her possession. Phaengsri Manatko was caught with two pieces of papers with undated three-digit and two-digit lottery numbers written on them and a piece of paper with an undated four-digit lottery number written on it when the PHQ personnel raided a house in Kg Lambak two years ago.
The said items were found underneath the mattress and inside the sewing machine drawer, the Police Prosecutor told the court.
London's Olympic Fund Could Be Bankrolled by Lotto Funds
Officials with the British government said this week they are prepared to spend up to £750 million for a funding package for London to host the 2012 Olympics.
If London's bid is successful, leaders are hopeful that a government proposal to create a special Olympic Lottery could be used to bankroll the Olympic effort.
The idea was pitched this week in the House of Commons as the second reading debate on the Horserace Betting and Olympic Lottery Bill.
Sports Minister Richard Caborn said the idea could work and might be the only way to fund an Olympic package.
"The creation of a dedicated Olympic lottery game will generate revenues that will be vital, and a vital part of the overall funding package for 2012 Olympic bid in London," he said.