Making Deals -- Rimpac Resources Ltd. said today it has signed an agreement with a group of 815 Internet cafes in Vietnam that will help facilitate sales of lottery tickets through its online lottery Web site, www.InternetLOTO.com. Thomas M. Johnson, president and CEO of Rimpac, said the affiliate cafes will help promote the lottery site as well.
Data Hub -- Buffalo Business First, a business publication serving western New York State, reports on a University of Buffalo gambling study today. The study, undertaken by the schools' Research Institute on Addictions, found that the number of Americans who say they have gambled in the past year increased to 82 percent this year from 63 percent in 1998. John Welte, a senior research scientist at the institute, said the country's gambling population is changing. "The growth of gambling opportunities throughout the country has been associated with a shift in the profile of the gambling population to become more female, older and less white," he said. "Gambling pathology or 'problem' gambling is still rather uncommon, but is becoming more prevalent among less affluent Americans."
News from Down Under -- An executive at Tabcorp said recently that he would be interested in expanding his company into the United Kingdom. Matthew Slater, the group's chief executive, said the deregulation of the gambling industry in the United Kingdom that is suggested in the Budd report makes it an attractive expansion ground. "The Budd report has been positive, and the U.K. government has been positive about implementing it," Slater said.