Alphyra Tests Electronic Daily Lotto for Rehab Group
Alphyra, an electronic payment company based in Ireland, is partnering with Rehab Lotteries to offer a Daily Lotto game that will be accessible from its network of cell phone terminals.
The payment systems company is piloting the software. Alphyra has more than 6,000 terminals throughout Ireland that allow mobile phone users to purchase more time for their prepaid mobile phones.
Rehab Lotteries is a division of the Rehab Group, which works toward social and economic inclusion of people with disabilities. It has raised more than 23 million Irish punt for Rehab Group and other not-for-profit organizations. The group's pairing with Alphyra is said to be the first time a non-state-owned lottery has used technology like Alphyra's to offer an electronic lottery in Ireland.
Camelot Researches Mobile Lottery
The United Kingdom's National Lottery is looking into the buying and selling of lottery tickets via 3G mobile phones.
Camelot, which runs the U.K. lottery, announced a deal with GTECH this week (to view today's article about the Camelot-GTECH deal, click here ) for an interactive lottery system that would allow players to purchase tickets over the Internet. The Board of the lottery, however, is said to have undertaken a £45 million research project to determine the plausibility of a 3G wireless lottery in the future.
The Nevada Lottery: Coming Soon?
The mayor of Las Vegas is directing his city staff to research the prospect of a statewide lottery that could assist Nevada in overcoming its budget shortfalls, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.
Although a state lottery is prohibited by the Nevada constitution, Mayor Oscar Goodman said he thinks a lottery is needed in part to prevent "half of Las Vegas hanging around the state line" to buy lottery tickets in California. In February millions of Nevada residents bought California lottery tickets when the jackpot there reached a record $175 million.
Multiple bills in favor of a state lottery have failed in the Nevada legislature in the last 20 years. The gambling industry has historically opposed such proposals because a lottery might eat away at gambling profits, but the industry did not voice an opinion in 2001 when the most recent pro-lottery bill failed.
Interlott Awarded Oregon ITVM Contract
Cincinnati-based Interlott Technologies was chosen by the Oregon Lottery to supply it with instant ticket vending machines.
Once the contract is finalized, Interlott expects the Oregon Lottery to place a minimum order of 225 16-bin ITVMs. Interlott provides the machines to 29 of the United States' 38 lotteries.
The Oregon Lottery began in 1985 and since then has raised $2.8 billion for education, economic development and natural resource programs. During fiscal 2001, the lottery generated $228.2 million for worthy causes.
New Zealand Lottery Mulls Virtual Tickets
The chief of the New Zealand Lotteries Commission told a parliamentary select committee in February that virtual lottery tickets could be a way to boost the organization's income.
Tickets could be offered via mobile phones, the Internet or electronic kiosks as a way popularize the lottery, Ariane Burgess said. There are ways, she said, of making Internet lottery sales unavailable to minors.
GTECH Alleges Unfair Practices by Scientific Games
GTECH Corp. is asking the South Carolina Procurement Review Panel to investigate the manner in which Scientific Games won the contract for South Carolina's new numbers-based games.
Rhode Island-based GTECH is alleging that its competitor used bait-and-switch tactics to win the contract last fall, the Associated Press reports.
"It appears upon review … that the successful bidder knowingly promised something they could not deliver and then substituted it for a system that did not comply with bid requirements," said GTECH spokesman Bob Vincent.