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Lotto fever isn't what it used to beNews Story
Sure, there was a buzz Tuesday. Sure, people dreamed. Sure, people blacked out their favorite numbers birthdays and anniversaries hoping for luck to strike. The chance to win a cool $250 million, though, didn't seem to draw the crazed stampede of wannabe Trumps that it has in the past. In 1984, a then-record $40 million jackpot in Illinois actually caused people to fly in from overseas to take a stab at it. For some, huge jackpots such as the one offered by the Mega Millions lottery in
Aug 30, 2007, 1:00 am - Lottery News

Calif. Lottery fails to meet Mega Millions deadlineNews Story
The Democrat-controlled California legislature, which has taken an adversarial role against the California Lottery for the past several years, has not met its obligation to change state law by a court-ordered deadline, aimed at ensuring participation in multi-state lotto is fair to education, lottery officials said Wednesday. The lottery bill making the needed change extension of California's prize-claim period to match 11 other Mega Millions states remained stalled on the eve of Friday's
Jul 12, 2007, 1:12 pm - Lottery News

D.C. Lottery hopes raffle will bring fiscal successNews Story
The D.C. Lottery's Quick Cash game had been around for more than 15 years when Todd Zimmerman walked into Rodman's Drugs in Northwest in February 2005 and bought two $1 tickets. With three games on each ticket, the government contractor won the maximum $250,000 jackpot for each of the six games. But the improbable $1.5 million payout also helped put the D.C. Lottery's Quick Cash game more than $640,000 in the red for the year, records show. Within months, the game was canceled, although lo
Jul 3, 2007, 9:46 pm - Lottery News

Sell the Mass. Lottery?News Story
Editor's note: The columnist's biased language, such as per-sucker spending was left as-written, since this is an opinion piece. Steve Bailey Boston Globe Massachusetts Treasurer Tim Cahill created a buzz last week when he proposed that the state get into the casino business before the Mashpee Wampanoags beat us to the slots. Lost in the headlines was his analysis of the future of the state's cash cow of a state lottery, which by almost every measure is the envy of the industry. In shor
Jun 1, 2007, 10:45 am - Lottery News

A mega decision for California Lottery?News Story
The state lottery's 2005 entrance into multi-state Mega Millions lotto would become fully legal, and fair to gamblers and schools, under a bill approved Thursday by the Assembly. At the same time, the Assembly said it is hiring a think tank, Los Angeles-based Milken Institute, to assess Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's push to privatize the state-run lottery. The move came after the governor briefed Democratic legislative leaders on the plan, aimed at yielding immediate cash to ease the state bud
May 26, 2007, 9:40 am - Lottery News

West Virginia resisting trend to privatize LotteryNews Story
About a dozen states are flirting with the idea of selling their lotteries to private companies to help plug financial gaps in their budgets. But West Virginia officials say they so far have not seriously considered such an initiative, which would privatize the state lottery in exchange for quick cash. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, for instance, wants to sell the Golden State's lottery to bring in as much as $37 billion. Under Schwarzenegger's plan, the state lottery would be leas
May 10, 2007, 4:26 pm - Lottery News

Schwarzenegger may try to privatize California LotteryNews Story
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is poised to call for privatizing the state lottery, a move that would bring California a cash infusion of as much as $37 billion to help solve pressing budget problems but also could sacrifice a major revenue source for decades to come. The lottery would be leased to a private company for up to 40 years in exchange for a lump-sum payment or series of payments, according to documents from the governor's budget office that were provided to legislative staf
May 10, 2007, 2:56 pm - Lottery News

Indiana Lottery privatization on holdNews Story
Gov. Mitch Daniels said Friday he is putting off but not giving up on his hopes of privatizing the Hoosier Lottery and wants a yearlong, statewide conversation on how best to spend the $2 billion or more the lease could bring. Daniels said 10 companies, mostly American firms, have submitted nonbinding bids to lease the Hoosier Lottery. Half of those, he said, are north of a billion and a half, with two offers well over twice as big as the $1 billion the state had estimated it could rece
Apr 23, 2007, 10:07 am - Lottery News

Republican says Colo. Gov. pressure killed plan to privatize lotteryNews Story
Republicans are accusing the Colorado governor of pressuring his party's legislators into essentially killing a plan to privatize the lottery. They claimed Gov. Bill Ritter believes the lottery proposal would compete with his plan to bring in more property taxes to pay for education. Ritter denied the accusations Friday. Republican Sen. Josh Penry of Fruita also said his Democratic co-sponsor on the lottery plan was under tremendous pressure to back away from the idea. The co-spons
Apr 22, 2007, 10:58 am - Lottery News

Legal opinion sinks sale of Colorado LotteryNews Story
Dreams of selling off the Colorado Lottery for a fat payoff were discarded like a losing scratch ticket Thursday after state legal experts gave an adverse opinion on the plan. Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, said he would not seek a measure that would ask voters to sell a concession contract in the state lottery because he couldn't fix a legal opinion that referred to the proposed sale as the state taking on $3 billion in debt. I may be a freshman, but I'm not that stupid, Romer said.
Apr 20, 2007, 8:08 am - Lottery News