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LOTTERY
INSIDER
is brought to you with the compliments
of
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| Vol. 30 No. 6 -- Monday February 7, 2005 |
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Texas Lottery® Transfers to Foundation School Fund Top $7 Billion AUSTIN, Texas (February 2, 2005) - The Texas Lottery Commission announced today that total transfers to the Foundation School Fund, which supports public education in Texas, have topped $7 billion. As of February 2, 2005, the exact amount transferred to the fund is $7,012,935,039.
"This is another significant landmark in the history of the Texas Lottery," said Reagan E. Greer, executive director of the Texas Lottery Commission. "The Games of Texas have created millions of winners in our more-than-12-year history, but with approximately 30 cents of every dollar spent on Texas Lottery products transferred to the Foundation School Fund, the biggest winner of all is public education in Texas." The Foundation School Fund, administered by the Texas Education Agency, assists public education in Texas at a local level by contributing to teacher salaries, administration and educational resources. Prior to 1997, proceeds from the Texas Lottery® were allocated to the state's General Revenue Fund. Since the first Texas Lottery ticket was sold in May 1992, revenue generated for the state of Texas through Texas Lottery sales total more than $12 billion. For more information about the Texas Lottery, please visit the official Texas Lottery Commission Web site at http://www.txlottery.org. SOURCE: Texas Lottery Commission Press Release. Dutch Lottery Donates One Million Euros to United Nations Refugee Fund HILVERSUM, The Netherlands (January 28, 2005) – In order to continue to help support refugees worldwide, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has received a donation of one million euros from the main charity lottery in the Netherlands. At a special meeting on Thursday with beneficiaries in Hilversum, the Netherlands, director Boudewijn Poelmann of the National Postcode Lottery handed a symbolic cheque of 1 million euros to Anne-Willem Bijleveld, UNHCR's Director of External Relations.
"We want to thank the National Postcode Lottery for their ongoing support to UNHCR, and for making it possible for us to continue to help refugees," Bijleveld said at the ceremony. The National Postcode Lottery is the top private fundraiser for charity in the Netherlands. It devotes 60 percent of its net income to work in the fields of nature preservation and ecology, development cooperation, human rights and refugees. Last year it saw an 8.7 percent growth, allowing a total of 224 million euros to be donated to its 49 beneficiaries. The UN refugee agency's partnership with the NPL goes back to 2003, when it was first recognised as a beneficiary. Besides UNHCR, the National Postcode Lottery also supports other organisations that help refugees and asylum seekers, notably UNHCR's partner organisation Stichting Vluchteling, the Dutch Refugee Council and the University Asylum Fund. Stichting Vluchteling has so far given UNHCR US$6.8 million for the tsunami operations – or more than two-thirds of the total of US$9.4 million UNHCR has so far received in confirmed contributions from the private sector. SOURCE: UNHCR Netherlands media release. ATLANTA, Georgia, USA (February 1, 2005) -- The Georgia Lottery Corporation (GLC) today announced the launch of $100 Million Cash Spectacular, a new instant game with 10 $1 million top prizes and the highest payout percentage in GLC history. GLC President and CEO Margaret DeFrancisco unveiled the new game in a press conference today at Philips Arena. Atlanta business leaders Michael Gearon and Rutherford Seydel, who are part of the ownership of Atlanta Spirit, LLC, the Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Thrashers and Philips Arena--were on hand along with former Hawks great and Atlanta Spirit investor Dominique Wilkins to show their support. The $100 Million Cash Spectacular tickets go on sale statewide today. In addition to the 10 top prizes of $1 million, the $10 game offers over $118 million in total cash prizes.
"The introduction of $100 Million Cash Spectacular and its record-breaking prizes is exciting for Georgia Lottery players," said DeFrancisco. "Just as rewarding is the fact that every dollar raised benefits the important educational programs funded by the Georgia Lottery." In conjunction with $100 Million Cash Spectacular, the GLC is conducting its biggest statewide promotion ever – Million-Dollar Hoopla. Players can enter a second chance drawing with $10 worth of non-winning Georgia Lottery tickets for a chance to win $1 million. Players can also enter at events held at lottery retailer locations statewide. From the second chance drawing, contestants will be chosen to participate in regional free throw basketball events at a mall location in each GLC district, including three in Atlanta. From the regional events, 10 lucky finalists will travel to Atlanta for a chance to win $1 million at the Grand Prize Million-Dollar Hoopla Event at an upcoming Hawks game at Philips Arena. As business leaders, Gearon, Seydel and Wilkins understand the importance of the educational programs funded by the GLC, including the nationally recognized HOPE Scholarship and high-quality prekindergarten for four-year-olds. Gearon, Seydel and Wilkins all attended Georgia colleges that benefit from lottery funding. "Almost everyone in Georgia knows someone who has benefited from the lottery-funded educational programs," noted Gearon. "The HOPE scholarship, in particular, encourages the state’s best and brightest to pursue higher education in Georgia, and it’s important to recognize the link between the purchase of lottery tickets and the educational reward that is directly associated with it." Since its first year, the Georgia Lottery Corporation has returned more than $7 billion to the state of Georgia for education. All Georgia Lottery profits go to pay for specific educational programs. These include Georgia’s HOPE scholarship program; a statewide, voluntary pre-kindergarten program for four-year-olds; and a wide range of technological and capital upgrades for the state’s schools, technical institutes, colleges, universities and public libraries. For more information, please visit the Media Center on the GLC Web site at: www.galottery.com SOURCE: Georgia Lottery Corporation.
Lifetime Achievement Award Conferred Upon Indian Lottery Veteran NEW DELHI, India (February 2, 2005) -- In a distinguished gathering of Punjab Lottery Stockists, Sugal & Damani conferred upon Shri Om Prakash Chugh Lifetime Achievement award for his distinguished services to the lottery industry. While giving the award, Chairman of Sugal & Damani group Shri Sugal Chand Jain narrated the struggled life of Shri Chugh and also explained how he is associated with the growth of lotteries in the country more specifically in Northern India. He said Shri Chugh has grown with the lotteries and the lotteries have grown with him.
Welcoming the gathering, Shri Kishor K. Ajmera- Director, Sugal & Damani, narrated the life of Shri Om Prakash Chugh and informed that Sugal & Damani is proud to be associated with him for a very long period and takes pride in honouring him with the lifetime achievement award denoting his fruitful life of sixty-eight years in recognition of his contribution to the lottery industry. Chugh’s education was cut short when his family decided to migrate from Pakistan in the wake of the Partition following Independence. But tragedy struck en route India. Chugh’s father Lurind Chand passed away. From having led a comfortable life as the son of a landlord and a head cashier at the Gujaranwala Gurudwara, Chugh’s world was turned upside down. The carefree boy, who was just eleven years old, suddenly found himself as the breadwinner of the family. As the only earning member of the family consisting of a differently abled elder brother and three younger sisters besides his mother Smt. Lakshmi Devi, he strove hard to sustain them. From being a casual labourer at the vegetable market, he moved on to servicing and selling of gas stoves. Finally he found his calling in the lotteries. He was well versed enough in the business and advised to the then Finance Minister of Punjab Sri Jagjit Singh Chauhan in launching the Punjab Lotteries. From agent to stockist to the role of organizer of various state lotteries, his dedication has seen him rise from very humble beginning to a phenomenal success in the field of lotteries.
Four decades of being in the business has given him an unmatched insight into the trade and its enormous benefits to the society. Given this reason, he has been able to persuade state governments from banning the lotteries. His busy schedule does not prevent him from involving himself actively in langers and bhandaras at the Holy Shrine of Amarnath cave, from conducting yoga classes and from undertaking various charitable activities through the offices he holds. The hardship he suffered as a young boy has made him sensitive and compassionate to every one, especially his family members and associates. As his grandchildren try to emulate their active grandfather, his wife and children are very supportive of his business ventures and community welfare measure. Sugal & Damani is the oldest group involved in lotteries and also having interest in Leasing & Finance, Diamond Jewellery, Information Technology, Engineering Goods and Hospitality. Sugal & Damani is involved with the lotteries since its inception and at present marketing lotteries in different States including Maharashtra and Punjab. SOURCE: Sugal & Damani. "One Powerball" Now Guaranteed With New Powerpik! PERTH, Western Australia (January 31, 2005) -- Western Australian Powerball players can now guarantee they pick the Powerball with a new ticket called Powerpik. Players of Powerball normally have to choose the five numbers they hope will be drawn from Barrel A plus the single Powerball number from the Powerball Barrel (Barrel B).
The new Powerpik ticket means all 45 Powerball numbers are guaranteed, with players only needing to match five numbers from Barrel A to win Division 1. A single Powerpik ticket will cost $27.00. "The Powerpik not only improves our players’ chances of scooping a prize; it also provides the opportunity to win multiple prizes in lower divisions, even if you don’t win Division 1," said Lotterywest’s Communications Coordinator Angelika Fawcett. Powerpiks can be purchased using either slikpiks or coupons. Players also have the option of playing systems as well as purchasing multi-week and advance wager tickets. The add-on game of Super 66 will remain available with Powerpik entries. The new Powerpik ticket is now available at all Lotterywest retail outlets. SOURCE: Lotterywest. OGT Cyber Games™; A Success Story in New Jersey MONTREAL, Quebec, Canada (January 31, 2005) -- Exclusive supplier to the lottery industry to offer powerful and strong brands such as Slingo® and Tetris®, Oberthur Gaming Technologies ("OGT") in partnership with the New Jersey Lottery and INGENIO, a subsidiary of Loto-Québec, successfully launched the Internet version of these two brands in the course of 2004. "Since the launch of Cyber Slingo® and Tetris® more than 5.5 million access codes have been played to achieve New Jersey E-game sales of over US $13,000,000 in 2004. Cyber Slingo® and Tetris® have provided incremental revenues, without cannibalizing any other instant games!" said Foster Krupa, Marketing/Instant Product Manager of the New Jersey Lottery. "With limited resources and investment, and in partnership with OGT and INGENIO, we were able to generate additional revenues to benefit Education and Institutions in New Jersey." "With sales adding up to more than US $13 million US, there’s no doubt that OGT Cyber Games™ have found their niche in New Jersey and reached a new category of consumers. We definitely changed the global picture of lotteries,… and we won’t stop there!" added André Nadeau, Senior Vice-President, Marketing and Strategic Development of Oberthur Gaming Technologies. "With Cyber Games™, we have reinforced our competency and our reputation as the lottery partner No. 1 for offering turnkey solutions to help our clients grow their business. Cyber Slingo® and Tetris® are great games and the stepping stone to the upcoming OGT Cyber Games™ Portal, … and even more." Following the resounding success in New Jersey, other lotteries have already stepped in and other North American lottery organizations will soon launch the product in their market. About Slingo® About Tetris®
About Oberthur Gaming Technologies (www.oberthurgt.com) With more than 30 years of lottery-specific expertise and over a century's experience in the security printing industry, Oberthur Gaming Technologies is the world’s leader in the printing of innovative instant lottery tickets. OGT currently supplies a full range of high quality and innovative products and services to 100 clients in some 50 countries. With a worldwide annual production capacity in excess of 14 billion tickets, the company has production units and offices in Montreal, Canada; San Antonio, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; Harleysville, Pennsylvania in the U.S.; Paris, France; Vienna, Austria; and Sydney, Australia. SOURCE: Lyse Trudel, Communications Officer, Oberthur Gaming
Technologies, (+1-514) 254-3600, ext. 101. STOCKHOLM, Sweden (January 31, 2005) -- EssNet today announced that the company has signed three new contracts with Szerencsejáték Rt, the national lottery in Hungary. Under the terms of the contracts, EssNet will deliver the following products:
"The gaming environment in Hungary is very competitive," said Gábor Székely, General Director of Szerencsejáték. "Together with EssNet we will continue to develop our business, adding product innovations and enhancements to our ELOS system in order to maintain our strong market position." "Szeren-cse-játék has been our valued customer since 1993, and we appreciate the confidence they show in our business partnership," said Hans Vigmostad, EssNet President & CEO.
About EssNet (www.essnet.se) EssNet is one of the leading suppliers in the lottery industry. Based in Stockholm, the company provides a full suite of lottery and gaming products - from new games, a variety of terminals and integrated solutions for Internet and mobile telephones, to the installation of turnkey systems. The customers are state-authorised gaming and lottery companies with licence to operate Lotto, Keno, Bingolotto, Toto, Oddset and other sports betting and numbers games. EssNet has installations in Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, South America, Africa and Australia. SOURCE: EssNet (www.essnet.se). Missouri Lottery Offers Text Alerts For Winning Numbers MISSOURI, USA (January 28, 2005) -- Now you can put the winning numbers in your hand! The Missouri Lottery is launching a new text messaging service that will allow players to receive the winning numbers on their cell phones, pagers or PDAs. "Many of our players have been requesting this service, and we are excited to make it available to them," said Gary Gonder, director of Communications for the Missouri Lottery Web site. To subscribe, players need to visit Molottery.com, create or sign in to their existing My Lottery* account and choose the game(s), day(s) and draw time(s) they play. A text message of the winning numbers for those games and draw times will then be sent to their wireless device after each drawing.
"Twelve of the more commonly-used wireless service companies are listed on our site; however if players do not find theirs, we can always add it upon request," said Web site programmer Mike Watson. Although the service is free to subscribers, carriers may charge for text messages. Therefore, subscribers are urged to consult their wireless service provider for any fees they may incur for text messaging services before signing up. Players can discontinue their service at any time by returning to the Molottery.com Web site, signing in to their My Lottery account and making the appropriate changes to their account preferences. So give it a try for your next ticket purchase! Log in to your My Lottery account to sign up. NOTE: * My Lottery is a FREE on-line player membership program available at Molottery.com. The program offers players a variety of unique services including: on-line promotion entry, registering favorite numbers, Lottery captain tools, e-mail newsletters and jackpot alerts, My Lottery-specific promotions, free-play birthday coupons and now, winning numbers via text messaging. SOURCE: Missouri Lottery media release. Pac-Man Bites
Into Lottery Sales TRENTON, Legal and Illegal, USA (January 27, 2005) – New Jersey Lottery players who grew up on arcade games now are using those quarters for something else: to scratch-off Pac-Man! Pac-Man, the best-selling coin-operated game in history, is now available as an instant game from the New Jersey Lottery. In just four weeks, the game has produced sales of about $2.7 million and has become a favorite of scratch-off game players. The average instant game produces sales of approximately $1.9 million over the same time period.
"Our players have really responded to Pac-Man," said William Jourdain, Acting Executive Director of the Lottery. "It's obviously a brand with high name recognition and I think a lot of our players grew up playing the game either at home or at the arcade. Pac-Man is yet another success story in our increasingly popular instant game product line." In recent years, instant games have become an integral component of the lottery's overall sales. Last fiscal year alone, instant game sales accounted for $973 million, or 44-percent, of the lottery's total revenue. With as many as 52 instant games introduced each year, players are exposed to a wide variety of themes, play formats and well-known brands. Priced at $2.00, Pac-Man offers a top-prize of $30,000. Since Pac-Man Mania is also a Bonus Zone game, players can register their three non-winning Pac-Man Mania tickets for a second chance to win a Pac-Man Arcade Game or a Pac-Man Prize Pack. Players can enter Bonus Zone Second Chance Drawings on-line through the Lottery's VIP Club at www.njlottery.net or through U.S. mail. Please refer to game brochure for details. SOURCE: New Jersey Lottery.
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