Want to know more
than the headlines
 Daily News |
|
Weekly Editions |
| Lottery Guide |
| Vendor News |
| OnLine Games |
| Internet Gaming |
| Wireless Gaming |
| Video Lottery |
| Bingo News |
| Products |
| Statistics |
| Classifieds |
| Feature Articles |
|
Events Calender |
|
Links |
|
Back Issues |
|
Lottery Scams |
|
Advertising |
| Search |
 Patents |
 Adwatch |
Advertisement
|
Advertisement
|
Advertisement
|
Lottery
Insider's FREE Weekly News Magazine
is brought
to you with the compliments of
 |
   |
Vol. 35 No. 9 Monday June 5, 2006 |
   |
|
|
Pull-Tabs Post Largest-Ever Single-Quarter Sales Numbers AUSTIN, Texas, USA (May 26, 2006) -- Pull-tabs posted the highest sales ever for a single quarter during the period from January through the end of March this year. Sales of pull tabs were $68.9 million, with instant prizes totaling more than $50.3 million.
“Pull-tab sales continue to be red-hot at charitable bingo halls across the state, and accounted for 39 percent of total bingo receipts for the first quarter of 2006,” said Billy Atkins, director of the charitable bingo division of the Texas Lottery Commission. “Pull-tabs let players know immediately if they’ve won a prize, and that’s part of their great popularity.” Gross receipts for the first quarter of the year were $174.6 million. In 2002 a new style of pull-tab game was approved for sale in Texas and those games have resulted in a dramatic increase in sales. From 2002 to 2003 sales of pull-tab tickets increased 45 percent and sales have continued to increase every year since. Most of the 1,262 non-profits that conduct charitable bingo games to raise money for their charitable causes sell pull-tabs. For more information about charitable bingo, please visit the official Texas charitable bingo Web site at http://www.txbingo.org. SOURCE:Texas Lottery Commission Press
Release. Montana Lottery, First in the USA to Use OGT FailSafe® Keyless Validation System SAN ANTONIO, Texas, USA (May 23, 2006) -- Oberthur Gaming Technologies (“OGT”) is pleased to announce the signature of a licensing agreement with the Montana Lottery for the use of OGT’s FailSafe® patented keyless validation system. The Montana Lottery will utilize FailSafe® for keyless validation and check a ticket purposes. Unique to OGT, FailSafe® consists of a barcode that is printed under the latex area of an instant scratch ticket, making FailSafe® entirely secure for the validation of instant tickets. For a greater performance, the Montana Lottery has opted for the multi-dimensional PDF-417 mini-barcode, one of the most advanced barcodes available today, which is five times smaller than conventional barcodes and designed to provide total security and integrity. The PDF-417 contains a built in redundancy which allows the barcode to be read even if it is partially covered by latex. “The Montana Lottery and our retailers could not be more pleased with OGT’s FailSafe® keyless validation system,” said George Parisot, Director of the Montana Lottery. “Our retailers are thrilled with the ease of use in scanning the PDF-417 mini barcode and the valuable time it is saving them in their very busy environment.” FailSafe® technology allows the use of any kind of barcodes, making it extremely adaptable to Lotteries’ individual needs. Thanks to advanced scanning and decoding technology, FailSafe® minimizes the possibility of fraudulent pay-outs and increases Lotteries’ overall productivity and efficiency, while optimizing ticket attractiveness. The multi-dimensional PDF-417 barcode is a foolproof and user-friendly technology as it eliminates the need for entering a separate PIN to complete the validation process, allowing for keyless validation and making it easier and quicker for retailers to sell and validate instant tickets. It carries up to 1,850 information characters, allowing for redundancy of information, which ensures accurate validation of the ticket, even if partially scratched. OGT has successfully implemented the FailSafe® technology for validation and accounting purposes in Canada (Atlantic Provinces), Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Venezuela, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Philippines.
About Oberthur Gaming
Technologies (www.oberthurgt.com) SOURCE: Lyse Trudel, Communications
Officer, Oberthur Gaming Technologies, (+1-514) 254-3600, ext. 101, Email:
lyse.trudel@mtl.oberthurgt.com.
Famed Poker Player Annie Duke Launches Oregon’s World Poker
Tour™ Instant Ticket
ALPHARETTA, Georgia, USA (May 25, 2006) – Poker great Annie Duke joined Oregon Lottery representatives last week for a “poker run” media tour in Portland to launch the Lottery’s new World Poker Tour™ instant ticket. The Oregon Lottery launched the instant game last week at more than 2,500 retail locations across the state. The $5 game offers a top prize of $50,000 and a chance to win merchandise prizes and a seat in a World Poker Tour (WPT) tournament. The media tour with Duke was part of an Integrated Marketing campaign designed by the Oregon Lottery and MDI Entertainment, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Scientific Games Corporation (NASDAQ: SGMS). “By helping bring Poker Champion Annie Duke to Portland for a day-long media tour, MDI was certainly key in the successful launch of our new World Poker Tour Scratch-it,” said Chuck Baumann, Senior Communications Specialist at the Oregon Lottery. “Not only was Annie entertaining, she was able to clearly communicate the good things that Lottery profits do for Oregon. That combination provided the Lottery with invaluable exposure, both for the game and the Lottery's benefits message."
Duke, who lived in Portland before relocating to Los Angeles, shared the details of the WPT game during the media tour, and even sat down with some radio promotion winners to play a few hands of Hold ‘Em Poker and provide a few friendly tips. In all, she appeared on 8 radio stations and several television segments. In addition to sharing information about the new World Poker Tour game with the media, Annie shared memories of growing up playing cards with her family, including the sense of accomplishment she feels when she actually beats her mentor brother, famed poker player Howard Lederer, who first convinced her to start playing poker professionally. To date, Duke has won over $3 million in tournaments and serves as a consultant for the online poker site UltimateBet.com to ensure that their rules of poker and tournament structure match those found in famous Vegas poker rooms. Furthermore, she is sought after for her vast poker skills and has even coached celebrities including Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who went on to win the 2004 California State Poker Championship. Steve Saferin, president of MDI Entertainment, said MDI’s poker games including WPT, World Series of Poker and Celebrity Poker Showdown, have been successful in every state that has launched the games and are important because they offer lotteries a new play experience and fun game for their players, resulting in increasing the bottom line. Adding a promotional element to a game launch, he said, just adds to the excitement and sales results. “Sometimes just launching a game and letting it ride on its own is fine, but to really achieve significant ticket awareness, a media tour like Oregon’s is a huge boost,” Saferin said. “Annie Duke is arguably the most visible female poker player today having beaten out the best of the best, including her own brother. I can’t think of a better to launch a new poker game and I’m sure other states will take advantage of our IMC efforts to bring that kind or exposure to their games.” MDI Entertainment's Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) division offers customers a full-service, comprehensive strategy to help lotteries take their sales to the next level. By coordinating all pieces of a marketing campaign including broadcast, out-of-home, POS, promotions, special events and grass-roots efforts, MDI’s IMC team works one-on-one with lotteries to build product awareness and increase sales.
In just its first two weeks, the World Poker Tour game has already produced its first $50,000 winner. Lee Hughes of Portland bought two WPT tickets at a 7-Eleven and after scratching one of them he thought he had won $5,000. “I was pretty excited about that,” he said, but when the retailer checked the ticket, they discovered the poker hand Lee uncovered in Game Two was actually a $50,000 winner. About Scientific
Games SOURCE: MDI Entertainment. Kansas Lottery to Sponsor Championship Rodeo Series KANSAS, USA (May 16, 2006) -- The Kansas Lottery is pleased to announce its partnership with the newly formed Kansas Association of Rodeo Committees and its sponsorship of the first-ever Kansas Lottery Championship Rodeo Series.
Professional rodeo contestants will earn points by competing in several rodeos being held in Kansas this summer, all of them part of the Kansas Lottery Championship Rodeo Series. The contestants with the highest cumulative series point totals in their events will win $1,000 cash prizes and trophy buckles. Events include saddle bronc riding, bareback riding, barrel racing, tie-down roping, steer wrestling, bull riding and team roping. “The Kansas Lottery is proud to be associated with a sport that embodies our state’s western heritage of hard work, honesty and integrity,” said Lottery Executive Director Ed Van Petten. “The rodeo series provides us an opportunity to help smaller communities attract visitors so they can realize the economic value of tourism locally, and also fits in well with the Lottery’s ‘Made in Kansas’ promotions that support businesses and attractions in Kansas.” The series will involve 12 Kansas rodeos in two divisions. The “Heeler Division” and the “Header Division.” The Kansas Association of Rodeo Committees says it is a rodeo tradition to help one another, and that is part of the motivation behind the Kansas Lottery Championship Rodeo Series. “In Kansas, we have high payout rodeos which have little problem attracting contestants, and lower payout rodeos which have some problems attracting contestants,” said R.C. Trotter, M.D., Chairman of the Kansas Association of Rodeo Committees. “The Kansas Lottery Championship Rodeo Series will encourage contestants to participate in all of the 12 rodeos, which will help the smaller rodeos to be successful.” SOURCE: Kansas Lottery. Camelot to Rollout Comtech ‘Jackpot
Communicator’ UNITED KINGDOM (May 30, 2006) -- Camelot, the operator of the UK National Lottery, and Comtech Holdings Ltd (www.comtechm2m.com), a leading Machine-to-Machine (M2M) solution provider, today announced that following a successful trial they will be rolling out 2500 ‘jackpot communicators’ across the network of lottery retailers. The in-store ‘jackpot communicator’ (JPC) is a wireless digital unit which displays jackpot levels for Lotto and EuroMillions in real time. As these games offer rolling jackpots, the challenge in the retail environment is for traditional paper-based PoS showing updated jackpot amounts to be printed and distributed in time.
The JPCs are designed to be “plug-and-play” for easy installation. The system is managed centrally, obtaining the information on jackpot levels from Camelot, which is then automatically delivered to the displays over the Orange wireless network. In addition to improved speed and accuracy of communication, the JPC allows retailers to spend less time on PoS administration (thereby further improving operational efficiency). Comtech was successful in having its wireless digital signage solution chosen by Camelot after a strict tender process with many suppliers. The key goals of the pilot were to provide a solution that was aligned with National Lottery branding and which was operationally and technically robust, whilst delivering a return on investment over the trial period. The 90-store trial was run over a year, and across a range of National Lottery retailer formats, from convenience stores through to supermarkets. During the period of the pilot, the technology proved to be extremely robust, whilst increased levels of player awareness helped to boost ticket sales in participating stores. The sales uplift alone meant that the return on investment was delivered in a relatively short timeframe. Steve Whitehead, Technical Director, Comtech Holdings Limited said: "The pilot process has highlighted a compelling business case for this system and has proven the robustness of our technology. We are working closely with Camelot to deliver the rollout of the system.” Paul Hopton, Camelot’s Merchandising Manager said: “We work closely with our retailers constantly looking for innovative ways to help them boost their sales by better meeting their specific needs – and the demands of their customers for quality of service and convenience. The JPC pilot has exceeded our expectations, with good feedback across the board, from retailers and players, and our sales force alike. This roll out underlines Camelot’s commitment to investing in the retail network and helping our retailers to maximise National Lottery ticket sales – and returns to Good Causes.” About Comtech Holdings
Ltd
About Camelot SOURCE: Comtech Holdings Ltd media release. Pennsylvania Lottery Explains How the Millionaire Raffle Winning Ticket Selection Will be Conducted PENNSYLVANIA, USA (May 24, 2006) -- On the evening of Tuesday, July 4, the Pennsylvania Lottery will use an Automated Drawing Machine (ADM) – also called a Random Number Generator – to select 760 winning tickets at random from all of the Millionaire Raffle tickets sold. In this drawing, the Lottery will award five top prizes of $1 million cash, five prizes of $100,000 cash and 750 prizes of $1,000 cash for a total of 760 prizes worth $6.25 million. Following the July 4 live drawing of the Lottery’s Daily Number, BIG 4, CASH 5 and MATCH 6 lotto winning numbers at 7 p.m., the Automated Drawing Machine will be used to select all 760 winning Millionaire Raffle ticket numbers. This same method selected the 509 winning ticket numbers in the Lottery’s first Millionaire Raffle drawing that was conducted Dec. 31, 2005.
The ADM selection of the five, $1 million top-prize raffle ticket numbers and the five, $100,000 second-prize raffle ticket numbers will be televised live. The 750, $1,000 winning raffle ticket numbers will be selected at the same time during the live drawing show, but the selection of these 750 winning tickets will not be televised due to time constraints. An Automated Drawing Machine or Random Number Generator is a highly secure computerized system that generates numbers in a random manner. ADMs or Random Number Generators have been used by lotteries for many years. The Pennsylvania Lottery first used an ADM for the "Hearts and Diamonds" game in the mid-1990s and has used random number generation over the years to facilitate many of its second-chance drawings. The Lottery currently uses an ADM to randomly select the numbers for the mid-day drawings of The Daily Number and BIG 4. Other lotteries, both in the United States and internationally, also utilize ADMs for the random selection of their winning numbers. The ADM will be certified by Gaming Laboratories International, the world's premier gaming products and systems testing company. A Pennsylvania Lottery drawing official will operate the ADM by pressing a button that will activate the ADM to begin the winning ticket number selection process. Viewers will see the winning ticket numbers for the top two prize tiers displayed on the ADM monitor as they are selected at random. In addition, the winning ticket information will be printed in report form and properly recorded on certification forms by the on-site Certified Public Accountant. A complete list of all 760 winning Millionaire Raffle numbers will be available on the Lottery’s Web site, as well as at local Lottery retail locations. The eight-digit raffle number printed on the ticket must match the eight-digit raffle number combination selected in the drawing – with all eight digits in the exact sequence in which they were selected – to be considered a winning ticket and to be entitled to a Millionaire Raffle prize. SOURCE: Pennsylvania Lottery
Lotto Prize Blocs: Players of the World Unite CHICAGO, Illinois (May 31, 2006) As part of our commitment to understanding and interpreting the lottery marketplace better than anybody else, Independent Lottery Research conducts a monthly National Jack PollSM (a statistically valid national sampling of lottery players and non players). The May 2006 poll asked how Joes (core players) and Jacks (lapsed, non, or sometime players…see website for definitions and methodology) feel about bloc lotto games, specifically Mega Millions and Powerball. Beyond learning about consumer attitudes towards these games, we also investigated participation based on reported behavior during the large prize run-ups experienced just prior to our survey in both bloc games. ILR’s findings mirrored our research among potential and actual Instant/Scratch players, like much of our past data, converting Jacks to Joes should be a major strategic goal for lotteries. One of the interesting findings was that both Joes and Jacks spend approximately the same amount when they begin playing bloc lotto games independent of size of prize and entry level…about $5. This should be an interesting piece of data for Lottery Directors, lottery staff, and lottery vendors to counter the standard criticism of lotteries that they foster excessive consumer behavior during these huge prize events. The size of the prize alters our playership by dramatically expanding it, but, new players (Jacks temporarily turned into Joes) do not behave any differently than core players. The data clearly indicates that the record sales levels achieved during recent huge prizes were fueled by Jacks (80% of the population who support their state lottery programs, but do not play regularly), not a core playership (Joes).
ILR Director and former Director of the Illinois Lottery Michael Jones reviewed the poll’s findings and said: “Lotto, and now bloc lotto games, with their dynamic grand prizes which can reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars still define what a lottery is all about and attract the broadest participation levels of any lottery games. We should understand that our player consists of Joes and Jacks and Jacks are the engine for real growth.” As in all of our national polls, based on our lottery knowledge based questioning techniques, ILR discovered some remarkable data. There is an incredibly high volume of interstate play as players chase Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots. Also, there is a much higher than anticipated level of players participating in office pools during these multi drawing prize events. Nearly two-fifths (37%) of Powerball players have played in an office pool or group. Likewise, almost one-third (31%) of Mega Millions players have done the same. This behavior suggests a vibrant market that can be expanded and made into a major profit center for enterprising lotteries. ILR urges both lotteries and vendors to conduct pre and post research to better understand the attitudes and consumption patterns among Jacks, as well as Joes, so that they may be better prepared to maximize sales and profits in a socially and ethically responsible manner when the next large run-up inevitable occurs. To find out more, call 312-546-5925 or visit the firm’s website: www.ilresearch.net SOURCE: Independent Lottery
Research. Nebraska Lottery Plays Its Cards Right with UNO®
SAN ANTONIO, Texas, USA (June 1, 2006) -- The Nebraska Lottery’s UNO® game, an Oberthur Gaming Technologies’ (“OGT”) licensed property, has shot to the top of the deck with incredible sales results. “For the last several weeks, UNO® sales have surpassed our very popular $35,000 Bingo game sales," said Angela Petersen, Products Manager for the Nebraska Lottery. “Plus, it has helped increase total sales for our $3 product line." UNO® has seen similar success among other U.S. lottery organizations that have launched the game. OGT expects the same results with other Lotteries in Canada and Australia that are preparing to launch UNO®. Mattel introduced UNO® in 1971 and has since been considered the best selling card game with 8 million units sold worldwide each year. It has long been noted as a family favorite and will be celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. UNO® and associated trademarks and trade dress are owned by, and used under license from, Mattel, Inc. ©2006 Mattel, Inc. All Rights Reserved. About Oberthur Gaming Technologies (www.oberthurgt.com)
With more than 35 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. Comprehensive services include strategic game planning and innovative conceptual design with OGT’s Dream Team™, mobile gaming, Cyber Games™ as well as state-of-the-art Global Operations and Lottery Distribution System (GOLDS). OGT currently supplies a full range of high quality products and services to 100 clients in some 50 countries. The company has production units or offices in Montreal, Canada; San Antonio, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; Philadelphia, 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, Email:
lyse.trudel@mtl.oberthurgt.com. Review By Glenn Barry of McCallum Consultants gbarry@sydney.net. SYDNEY, NSW, Australia (May 2006) -- No, they are not body snatchers starring in a remake of a Frankenstein movie despite the banner name of this book - rather two long term gaming industry executives looking back over their careers and experiences and what that might mean for the current state and future of the gaming industry.
The book is chatty in style and avoids bogging down with the much repeated history of gambling and lotteries and the underlaying mathematics of gaming. The book cover a lot of ground and issues and is more an overview of the current and future state of the gaming industry rather than another "history of lotteries". This book contains information you can use now and cause you to think about the immediate future. While the points made by the authors in this 'industry insider' reader's opinion are sound they may leave other readers not from the industry seeking a more detailed background to how the authors reached some of the conclusions they have. Apart from a somewhat jarring use of the words of Herbert Spencer , "survival of the fittest" in a Social Darwinian sense never intended by Charles Darwin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival_of_the_fittest) or Alfred Russel Wallace the co-discoverer of "natural selection" in the introduction the book, the authors soon settles into the area of expertise they are clearly more familiar with. There is a sound attempt in the early chapters to arrive at a modern classification of the different forms that gambling/gaming/betting that leads on the a table the authors refer to as "The Lafaille/Simonis Game Grid" which features as a summary in a fold out back cover of the book. The authors also make a very strong case that technology and changing market trends has led to a level of convergence of games making it increasingly difficult to define what is a lottery and what is not. Found myself nodding in agreement page after page in section III of the book when the authors discuss who are and what are the motivations of the players. I know many who would have benefited from reading this section before embarking on game start ups with badly designed lottery game not in tune with the market. In Section IV I particularly agree with (page 132) the issue of "inflated jackpots" and the speculation that USA lotteries may have done themselves more harm than good with this method of promoting prizes as including yet to be earned interest as if it was the net present value of the prize. This point is reinforced on page 135 where the stability of long term revenue in European is compared with the USA experience. On page 138 I agree totally with the authors views on TV lottery/game shows and their comments may bring a wry grin to many in the industry. . The authors government lottery management background comes though repeatedly throughout the book and parts of the book on the question of monopoly government corporations and their views might annoy private gaming and lottery management and Internet operators based on small islands in the Caribbean. The authors broadly favor the "natural monopoly" theory and the need for social impact control by a responsible government. It is also clear the authors are concerned about a future where a laissez-faire approach to gaming results in chaos and revulsion by the voting public. Examples are given where the "wide open" approach has ended up neither benefiting the operators or the governments who have licensed them. The underlying theme that comes through in this book is a clear warning that too much gambling of the wrong type is no good for the public and in the long term, for the gaming industry.
A few small errors have crept in here and there in the first edition, on page 34 para 2 "sports games such as lotto" has either the word "sports", where is should not be or the authors intended to refer to "Toto" rather than "Lotto", on page 130 under "Size of Pick-Your-Own-Numbers Games" the probability of 3 from 6 from 36 being shown as 1 in 267 rather than 1 in 24 and while the calculation 3 from 6 from 29 at 1 in 57 is correct it makes for a confusing paragraph wherein it says the probability in the 3/6/49 is a lot better than 3/6/36. Nor does the book explore the need for different size economies and developing countries to structure lotteries and revenue break ups to suit their economy reality where often they are buying equipment management and materials at first world prices but selling at 3rd world prices. Far too many developing country lotteries and lottery operators have failed as a result of copying 1st world taxes and operating margins, but I guess in 177 pages you can't cover everything. This book should be of interest and useful to, and in the reference library, of anyone or any organization with the slightest interest in what really makes the gaming industry tick. People new to the industry will definitely benefit from reading the book a couple of times at least. Reviewer Glenn Barry is a 32 year veteran in lottery management with experience in Australia, USA, Asia, Africa and Europe. WANT TO BUY THE
BOOK?
|
|