The Rehab Group, one of Ireland's largest companies in the not-for-profit sector, has launched the country's first online lottery.
Rehab's lottery, founded in 1987, is now poised to leave its competitor, An Post National Lottery Company, behind.
Speaking at the launch of the initiative, Rehab Lotteries Managing Director, John McGuire, expressed the importance of Internet distribution to his company's strategy.
"Internet usage is showing rapid growth in Ireland; with 40 percent of all Irish homes now having Web access and of all Irish adults, some 38 percent are now purchasing from home on the Internet," McGuire said. "This medium is ideal for the distribution of new and fun lottery products, and we are confident that this channel will raise significant funds for our respite care program."
Rehab provides training, employment and care services to people with disabilities and the socially disadvantaged. The group provides services to 40,000 clients at 160 locations in Ireland and the United Kingdom.
The technology required to create a highly secure lottery Web site has been provided by U.S.-owned Lottery Network Services Ltd., which specializes in the development of lottery game software.
GeoTrust, the provider of the Rehab's security services, delivered the secure e-commerce transactions, identity verification and trust authentication services for the project.
True BusinessIDTM, GeoTrust's online security and trust solution, offers 128-bit SSL security as well as the True SiteTM trust mark, which provides third-party Web site identity validation. The high level of encryption means communications (e.g. credit card numbers) between the player's browser and the site's Web servers are private and secure when the SSL session is activated.
When the National Lottery was established in 1987, the Rehab Group was an applicant to operate the Lottery on behalf of the government. Having been unsuccessful in its bid, the group decided to establish its own lottery company as a defense mechanism to protect its fundraising income.
In preparing its National Lottery bid, the group had acquired considerable knowledge of managing lotteries and was keen to put this expertise to good use.
Rehab Lotteries commenced trading in November 1987 and since then it has been successful in raising just over 15 million euro for the group and other not-for-profit organizations. Until now, the company's business was mainly based on scratch cards, which were sold in 2,000 retail outlets throughout Ireland.
Now, jackpots of up to 10,000 euro are on offer from nine different games on the site, including scratch cards, bingo and keno. Stakes range from 25 cents to two euro per play and payment is by means of credit card.
The Rehab Group has an annual turnover of more than 146 million euro (2002). This comes from a variety of sources, including state grants, income from commercial services and fundraising revenue.
An Post National Lottery Company Key Financials:
- Total Sales: 533.1million euro (a decline of 0.9 percent).
- Pay-out Prizes: 52.7 percent of sales, or 280.9 million euro.
- Surplus: In 2002, 172.9 million euro was raised for beneficiary projects. This brings the total amount of money raised since the launch of the National Lottery to almost 1.9 billion euro.
- Total Operating Costs: 14.86 percent of sales, or 79.2 million euro. This includes 33.1 million euro, or 6.2 percent of sales, paid to agents in commission and bonuses.
Ireland's Population: 3.8 million.