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Increased California Lottery payouts spur salesNews Story
Californians who play lottery Scratcher games have apparently noticed a new and not unwelcome change in the way some of the games are structured: They win more. As a result, they're playing more. Scratcher sales leaped by $55 million in June, the first month that a new law allowed lottery officials to increase the percentage of revenues returned in prize money. Officials are confident that trend will continue. In its budget for the fiscal year that began July 1, the Lottery Commission p
Jul 6, 2010, 9:03 am - Todd - Lottery News

N.Y. Lottery looks to increase prizes through investment strategiesNews Story
The New York Lottery is proposing a gamble where the odds aren't always in its favor moving its $1.3 billion prize fund into investments such as stocks, corporate bonds, real estate and hedge funds and out of the safety of U.S. Treasuries. If the agency were to double its annual return to 8 percent as it projects, the prize would be $37 million more for state coffers as New York grapples with a record $13 billion budget deficit next year. Losses might reduce proceeds that fund education, said
Nov 17, 2009, 7:26 am - Todd - Lottery News

Feds freeze online poker champ's winningsNews Story
Federal officials order banks to freeze millions in online poker winnings On the Sunday before Memorial Day, David made the big time. Winning $10,000 in an online poker tournament made him eligible for the upcoming World Series of Poker, the game's premier event, where hundreds of players amateur and professional descend on Las Vegas from around the world to play for a multimillion-dollar pot. To register, he simply had to cash a check cut by a company that processed payments for the po
Jun 11, 2009, 11:20 pm - Todd - Lottery News

Tenn. lawmakers want to force lottery to drop computer drawsNews Story
There is new discussion in the Tennessee Legislature about the possibility of the state lottery going back to using ping-pong balls to select the Cash 3 and Cash 4 winners. In 2007, a computer programming error prevented anyone who played repeated digits, such as two fives in a row, from winning. The error was discovered Aug. 20 when lottery officials contacted the system designer, Smartplay, about their concerns. The lottery is asking Smartplay, and the company that certified the syste
Mar 26, 2008, 9:08 pm - Todd - Lottery News

Lottery no game for Tennessee executiveNews Story
Standing recently in Neyland Stadium with roaring University of Tennessee football fans, Rebecca Paul Hargrove, the highflying impresario of legalized gambling, proudly waved a symbolic check for a billion dollars. The moment, captured on jumbo screens across the stadium, was among the countless plugs for the fund-raising prowess of Tennessee's lottery, which Hargrove started four years ago. As lottery executives go, few can claim her knack for seizing the spotlight. No matter the occasion, H
Nov 23, 2007, 10:12 am - Todd - Lottery News

Kansas Lottery surpasses $1 billion mark in profits for the stateNews Story
The Kansas Lottery has banked its first $1 billion while also marking its 20th anniversary. At ceremonies Friday in Topeka, director Ed Van Petten said sales revenue transferred to the state treasury on Thursday pushed the game's all-time profits over the $1 billion mark. We are thrilled to tell you that the lottery has reached another milestone, he said. The second billion won't take nearly as long after Kansas' state-owned numbers game morphs into state-owned casino operator under a
Nov 12, 2007, 8:19 am - Todd - Lottery News

Mass. Gov. promises to protect lottery revenueNews Story
Seeking to nullify a major complaint about expanded gaming, Massachusetts Governor Deval L. Patrick is pledging to protect state Lottery revenues from being ravaged by casinos. As part of his proposal to establish three casino resorts, including one in Western Massachusetts, Patrick said he will hold harmless the state Lottery, a major source of state aid to cities and towns. The governor said he would cover any loss in lottery revenues with money from a proposed annual 27 percent tax
Sep 26, 2007, 10:52 am - Todd - Lottery News

Wyoming lottery bill killed once againNews Story
Casper resident Larry Griffith thought surely this was the year for Wyoming to finally join a multi-state lottery. Griffith has been buying Nebraska lottery tickets for years, and said Wyoming is losing big money to adjacent states. So Griffith was not happy when the state House on Monday voted 31-27 to kill yet another attempt to legalize a lottery in the state. I think it's pathetic, he said. After a half-dozen previous attempts to legalize lottery by the state Legislature, this
Feb 7, 2007, 11:09 am - Todd - Lottery News

Online gambling executive arrested on state chargesNews Story
Gambling industry experts agree: If you operate an offshore gaming Web site, stay out of the U.S. Moments after stepping foot on American soil Thursday, Sportingbet PLC Chairman Peter Dicks became the second British offshore sports betting executive arrested in recent months for illegal online gambling in the U.S. Former BetOnSports PLC Chief Executive Officer David Carruthers was arrested on federal charges in July. It's still unclear if the arrest is a coincidence or part of a government
Sep 8, 2006, 5:47 pm - Todd - Lottery News

Arrest Made in Crackdown on Internet BettingNews Story
In a sharp escalation of their crackdown on Internet gambling, United States prosecutors said yesterday that they were pressing charges against the chief executive of BetOnSports, a prominent Internet gambling company that is publicly traded in Britain, and against several other current and former company officers. Federal authorities arrested the chief executive, David Carruthers, late Sunday as he was on layover at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on his way from Britain to Costa Ric
Jul 18, 2006, 7:37 am - Todd - Lottery News