Norway and Lottery Go Hand in Hand
Statistics from Swedish Gaming relating to amounts spent on the lotto in various countries show Norway as the number one country in terms of lottery spend.
Displacing Malta as having the highest spend on lotto tickets, 1.1 Norwegians purchase a lottery ticket each week. The combination of small bets from a large consumer base creates the country's large betting tab and in the first part of 2002, Norsk Tipping's lottery unit has already seen an increase of 15.3 percent over the same period last year. The lottery accounts for 28 percent of their NOK 1,830 million revenue.
"In Norway Lotto appeals to all levels of society, there is nothing embarrassing about playing. There are many countries where this is not true and this kind of gambling is seen negatively," said information consultant Roar Joedahl of Norsk Tipping.
The lottery is also wildly popular in Denmark and Finland, with both countries in the top ten of the spend category along with Norway. Sweden is the exception, ranking only 68 out of 100.
Suicide Rarely Spurred by Gambling - Report
A follow-up study aiming to link suicide rates to the presence or availability of casino gambling was conducted by the University of California-Irvine and showed very little in the way of concrete evidence to support the theory. The results of the study can be found published in the Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior academic journal.
The original study was conducted in 2000 and found no substantiation of a connection between visitors to gambling and casino resorts and suicide. The incidence of casinos on suicide rates in different regions of the U.S. only accounted for one percent of differences amongst the regions. More correlation to suicide rates was found with non-regional factors, such as age, race and unemployment rates and combining these factors explained 99 percent of the suicide rate differences.
One of the studies authors, Kenneth Chew, concluded "There are more important things to look at than casino gambling when resolving factors that affect suicide.
One aspect of the study looked at communities before and after gambling or casinos were introduced into the area and compared with areas in which gambling was never legalized. They found only one in seven counties showed any change in the suicide rate after gambling was legalized and that change could not be solely attributed to the introduction of casinos.
Bingo Develops Skills in Both Young and Old
British University of Southhampton's Centre for Visual Cognition in the Department of Psychology researchers have been studying the mental agility of bingo players for the past year.
Testing of bingo players and non-bingo players revealed that cognitive abilities like accuracy and recognition of patterns was faster and more accurate in bingo players of all ages than those that did not play bingo. One hundred twelve people in two age groups of 18 to 40 and 60 to 82 were tested for their long-term mental ability.
The findings suggest that bingo or similar games can help to stave off declining cognitive abilities as we age. Regular participation in activities that require a high level of mental functioning may condition the mind and maintain high levels of functioning later in life.
Certain Pay-for-Content Models Thriving
A survey of 121 web publishers by Intermarket Group's Content Matrix tracking service shows certain subscription-based website offerings are having an easier time attracting customers than others.
Pay-for-content services such as gaming, personals, the tracking down of school friends and sending greeting cards are becoming more popular and increasing their subscriber numbers at a healthy pace.
South Korea-based NCSoft led the pack with 4 million subscribers to its multiplayer game and Classmates.com followed with 1.6 million subscribers. Greeting cards sites of American Greetings recorded 1.4 million subscribers. Online dating site Match.com was also in the top 10 subscription services with 527,000 subscribers.
"Although the majority of Internet users may indeed be unwilling to pay for
online content at this point, tremendous opportunities still exist," David Strassel, editor of The Content Matrix service, said in a statement.
B2B Forecast in Latin America and Brazil Doubles B2C
Brazilian firm E-consulting reported on its recent study in Business News Americas and confirmed that the Latin American and Brazilian markets for online B2B services is set to increase considerably.
According to the study, the B2B market in Latin America should hit US$3.5 billion this year, whereas the B2C market will top out at US$1.5 billion. Growth in the B2B market is expected to be about 28 percent in 2003 to reach US$4.5 billion in 2003 and a further US$9.3 billion by 2005. The B2C market is expected to balloon 73 percent over the next year to reach US$2.6 billion and a further US$6.4 billion by 2005.
Internet users are also slated to increase in Brazil in particular, from 7.7 million active users in 2002 to 10 million in 2003 to nearly 15 million by 2005