Study Shows Decline in UK Lotto Players
A new study published by research consultancy group ORC International shows that the number of people participating in the U.K. Lotto has declined steadily over the years and dropped to only 61 percent of adults in 2002.
In 1998, 75 percent of U.K. adults participated in the Lotto, according to "GamblerTrack 2002," a study released this week. The study also shows that National Lottery games remain the most widespread form of gambling in the United Kingdom by a considerable margin.
According to the report, the number of people who gamble declined by 6 percent over last year to 29 million or 65 percent of adults. Among those adults that do gamble though 94 percent of them play National Lottery games.
The study also shows that all lottery activities lost more players than they gained. Nearly 2 million people stopped playing the Lotto Saturday game and an even larger number, 3 million, played it less often.
Camelot Offers Two New Games
Camelot, the operator of the U.K. National Lottery, unveiled two new games in September. One is based on the arcade classic Space Invaders and both offer up to £5,000 in prize money.
The Space Invaders game is geared toward the under-35 age group, according to lottery officials, and allows players to destroy alien spaceships to reveal the amount of money they have won.
In the other game, Safe Cracker, players match combinations on a safe to win a prize fund of £5,000.
The two games were added to the growing list of lottery options on the National Lottery Web site.
Pomeroy Out After One-Year Heading National Lottery Commission
The 12-month term for the chairman of the National Lottery Commission will expire later this month, and a new successor has been named.
Brian Pomeroy will see his term expire, and Moira Black, chairman of FSA Pension Plan Trustee, will take over. Members of the commission are hoping to push new regulations that will extend the chairman's term from the current 12-month period to bring continuity to the job and allow for more progress to be made with the commission.
Pomeroy and the other four commissioners who make up the group have played a significant role in working toward lottery reform, particularly the extending of licensing to multiple operators. Camelot is currently the only National Lottery operator.
Trio of Companies Creates On-line Lottery in Columbia
An alliance formed in September between Avantel, Wireless Business and Motorola will develop an on-line lottery system in Columbia that will allow players to access information about all the available options, results and prizes.
Avantel is providing its mobile and data transmission network and Motorola is providing the latest technology, which will provide the services developed by Wireless Business.
T-Mobile Gets Access to Czech Market
T-Mobile, an international wireless carrier, teamed up with TV Nova in the Czech Republic to launch a new instant lottery combined with a television show called T-Mobile RENTA.
The effort got the blessing of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and is expected to infuse increase revenue for the government.
For about $1, players can purchase tickets at SAZKA points of sales and at post-offices with on-line terminal designated by "Zlatá rybka" ("Golden Fish") symbol.
A portion of the revenue generated by T-Mobile RENTA lottery will be used to cover public needs in the domain of culture, namely reconstructing and maintaining important sights of cultural and historical value in the Czech Republic.
India Struggles to Create On-line Lottery
A number of potential partners are interested in teaming up with government officials to launch an on-line lottery in India, but the project could be dead.
The government changed the Lotteries Regulation Act, 1998, to the Kerala State Lotteries and On-line Lotteries Regulation Rules, 2003, in the last assembly session with a view to starting an on-line lottery of its own.
The plan was to have a private partner team up with various state governments to form the alliance. Nine companies stepped forward this year to fill out tender applications, but no one turned in a completed application by the August deadline.
A high-level tender committee comprising the secretaries of law, tax, industries, information technology and finance was constituted to select a private agent to run the online lottery of the state, but since no viable candidate came forward, the idea has been scrapped, at least for the meantime.
The government had advertised in all major newspapers, inviting tender applications for the selection of the private agent who would establish, conduct and market the state online lottery.
According to media reports, the main reason for this unexpected backing out by private players was to force the government to relax the norms prescribed in the agreement for conducting the online lottery in the state.
Bulgaria's State Lottery Getting Privatized
Four offers have been submitted to Bulgaria's Ministry of Finance to participate in the tender for the privatization of the country's state lottery.
The four bidders are Scientific Games International of the United States, Itralot of Greece, Austrian Lotteries and Sweden's EsNet.
Intralot, owned by Greek millionaire Socratis Kokalis, is participating in the tender together with their subcontractor, Moment Lottery, also of Greece. Kokalis's company has already made its way to this country. In February 2002, it acquired 49 percent of Eurofootball. Intralot has already won state lottery tenders in Chile and Romania.