Since December 2002, lotto players in the German state of Bayern have been able to buy lotto and lottery tickets via SMS. Officials close to the project say the results have been "surprisingly positive" so far.
According to Erwin Horak, president of the state lottery in Bayern, the new service is the first in its kind in Germany and one of the first in the world. "With this new concept and a very attractive draw, we are able to satisfy the wishes of our players," Horak said. "It was for us essential that the security concerning the data transfer, as well as simple and comfortable to use, should be state of the art. This new betting service we have realized in close cooperation with the m-commerce company Beamgate, with whom we are already, for over more than a year, offering our draw results via mobile (devices)."
To buy tickets by "handy" is very simple. The user registers at www.lotto-bayern.de, prepares a number of favorite lottery number combinations (a ticket) and saves them each under a unique name ( e.g. "Valentine" for "3 21 22 28 30 36"). To play his numbers in the upcoming drawing, the user sends an SMS with a PIN code and the name of the ticket he wants to play.
Dr. Miguel Albrecht, CTO of Beamgate AG in Munich, added, "Technically speaking, two modules perform most of the work. A subscriber management system maintains the profile of the user and executes the actual gaming and billing (shared mobile and Web).
"A mobile media platform manages all messaging functions, including semantic parsing of the user's requests. This service is offered to customers of all German mobile operators and value-added resellers (seven in total). It started with Lotto Bayern and is currently being rolled out to another five German federal states."
Beamgate's interactive platform supports all usual mobile terminals as well as their communication protocols. Support for future technology standards (e.g. GPRS and UMTS) is already built in.
By the end of 2001, there were 56.3 million mobile subscribers (52.3 million fixed lines) in Germany, up 8 million from the previous year and representing a penetration rate of around 69 percent. (Source: German Regulatory Body.)
Germany
With a population of 83,251,851 (July 2002 est. source: CIA), the Federal Republic of Germany is the biggest market in Europe.
Within the country's borders are 16 states, the so called "Bundes Lander," with their own jurisdictions: Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bayern, Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Hessen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, Thüringen.
Articles 92-96 of the German Constitution (Grundgesetz) deal with the court structure in Germany. As a federal republic, Germany's courts are divided between the federation (Bund) and the states (Lander).
The federal "Rennwett- und Lotteriegesetz" RennwLottG - (RGBl I S. 393), Horseracing- and Lottery legislation, enacted April 8, 1922, is still in power. Over the years, minor adaptations have been made in the legislation. Each state, however, has its own jurisdiction, which accounts for lotto, toto and lotteries, horse racing and casinos.
Every state has its own lotto toto company with lotto, toto and lottery products.
The members of the Deutschen Lotto- und Totoblock (DLTB), a cooperation of all the 16 lotto and toto companies, combine lotto and toto products and sales. They retain complete independence, but pool their stakes and operate common rules for participation in the games per state jurisdiction. Every member gets its own stake of the turnover, which comes from common products.
The DLTB was founded in 1955. In 1959, all 11 lotto companies of the then German states joined the block. In 1993 the lotto companies of the so called new Bundeslander united with the DLTB as well.
The block agreement is a treaty between all of the independent lotto companies, constituting a civil law association: "Gesellschaft buergerlichen Rechts (GbR)".
The block commenced Internet sales in 2000.