Indian Governments Battling Over Online Lottery
State governments in India are battling over the legality of a new online lottery being run by the Maharashtra government.
This week the Bombay High court asked All India Association of Federation of Lottery and Allied Activities as well as Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland governments to file affidavits by October 5 in response to a PIL challenging the online lottery. The request comes after officials with the Maharashtra government justified the lottery and said there was nothing illegal about it.
The PIL challenged the online lottery on Internet and computers saying it violated the provisions of Lotteries (registration) Act 1998 and exploits gullible people.
The PIL alleged that the states were not conducting the online lottery themselves but had appointed agents and distributors who were running the show. The respondent states were patronizing these lotteries.
The PIL urged for a stay on online lotteries and their advertisements until the matter was finally heard and disposed of. No decision is expected in the case until affidavits from all interested governments are received in early October.
Sir Lanka Lottery Behind Schedule
Hopes of having an online lottery launched by September in Sir Lanka were dashed last month after officials from The National Lotteries Board's (NLB) subsidiary, Online Lotteries Private Limited (ONL), were informed the process was behind schedule.
ONL contracted Norwegian government owned lotteries, Norsk Tipping to mange Rapido, but the launch date of early September was pushed back to late October.
According to local media reports over 100 lottery terminals have been installed in the greater Colombo area for the first phase. The agents are being connected to a central server that will run the games.
Norsk Tipping will receive a five per cent management fee, which will come off the subsidiary's bottom line.
Serbian Mayoral Candidate Proposes Unique Lottery
A Serbian mayoral candidate offered his salary of 25,000 euros ($31,500) over four years as the jackpot in a lottery if he is elected in September, Beta news agency reported.
Cedomir Backovic, an independent candidate for mayor in the northern town of Sombor, advertised the lottery in a local newspaper. Only people who vote for him on September 19 will be eligible for the draw.
FOBTs Surpassing Lottery Games in Popularity Among High St. Punters
New figures released last month show that punters at the top five high street betting shop chains are spending three times as much money on fixed odds betting terminals as they are on the national lottery.
The new touch-screen terminals, introduced less than three years ago, have rapidly attracted a dedicated and growing following, offering punters the best return in the betting shop.
An investigation by the Guardian conservatively estimates that more than £290 million a week is gambled on about 15,500 machines at Ladbrokes, William Hill, Coral, Stanley Racing and the Tote. This compares with average weekly ticket sales of £88 million recorded by Camelot, operator of the National Lottery.
Chariotlottery Seeking Funding From Industry
A new alternative for the national lottery in the UK, Chariotlottery, is seeking funding from the gambling industry to help launch the project.
Executives said they are looking to raise £3 million to fund the high profile launch campaign it needs to go head-to-head with the government-sponsored lottery and is actively seeking partners in the gambling sector to help.
The company has secured all necessary approvals from the Gaming Board and is currently aiming to launch in the final months of 2004.
Lottery Officials Targeted in Scam
The Irish Independent newspaper reported last month that Ray Bates, director of the Irish National Lottery, along with his Dutch and French counterparts, received an email on congratulating them on being one of five winners of the "An Post National Lottery."
Using a computer ballot draw, the email said that they were the "privileged recipients" of $1.35 million each, with guaranteed payouts to be transferred to their bank accounts in "record time."
There was, of course, a catch. Bank details had to be supplied, and there was a one-off "administration fee" of $610.
Bates told the newspaper that the three were the victims of an elaborate scam perpetrated over the Internet and that some members of the public were likely to have received the same email.
The National Lottery urged anyone in receipt of the e-mails to ignore them.
ONCE Inks Deal with Santander
Spanish banking group Santander Central Hispano signed a 5-year deal with Spanish lottery operator ONCE, the national organization for blind and partially sighted people.
The bank will be responsible for administering the company's lottery payouts and its vendors' sales commissions.
Italian Lotto Group Reports Rise in Receipts
Italian lottery operator Lottomatica reported an increase in lottery receipts for July compared to figures form the previous year.
The group said that sales increased to 815.8 million euro from 652 million a year earlier.
Prizes totaled 542.4 million euro compared with 509 million.
Two Firms Take Lead in Thai Online Lottery Bid
Reports in the Bangkok Post last month said that two private firms are the leaders to win a multi-billion contract to run the country's new online lottery.
The report said that Loxley Plc, a trading and telecommunications conglomerate, and Yip In Tsoi have made the short list to win the bid, expected to be awarded later this year.
The two applicants were the only ones out of the five bidders that tendered to have passed the technical screening. Loxley is bidding together with GTECH, while Yip In Tsoi is joined with Scientific Games (SGI).