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Va. Lottery: Gambling or Gold Mine?News Story
15 Years Later, Program Has Its Fans and CriticsIf buying a house with a white picket fence is the American dream, perhaps winning the lottery is the American daydream.Players know the odds are against them, but for some, a chance at thousands of dollars, or even millions, seems worth a dollar or two.Fifteen years after the Virginia Lottery was created in September of 1988, some area residents play every day.But even though revenues go to public education, some still oppose it.I opposed it (in 1
Nov 21, 2003, 4:42 am - Lottery News

Texas Lottery Closes Five Claim CentersNews Story
The Texas Lottery Commission (TLC) has announced the closure of five claim centers located in San Angelo, Wichita Falls, Sherman, Bryan and Waco to be effective January 30, 2004. In addition to the closures, there will be a reduction of 2 Full Time Employees (FTEs), one in the Tyler center and the other in San Antonio. This type of decision is never easy to make, yet sometimes must be made given the circumstances, stated Texas Lottery Commission Deputy Executive Director Gary Grief. As with ot
Nov 20, 2003, 6:54 am - Lottery News

Indiana Resident Claims $12 Million Powerball JackpotNews Story
A Muncie, Indiana man got the call of a lifetime recently.On the other end was a store clerk who told James Allen that he won a 12-point-eight million-dollar Powerball jackpot.Allen claimed his prize yesterday from a drawing held nearly two weeks ago, on November fifth.Allen says he lets his tickets accumulate and drops them off at a retailer to have the clerk scan for winners. He returns later to collect any prize money.Lottery officials say the clerk could have claimed the winning ticket with
Nov 18, 2003, 5:08 am - Lottery News

Lottery may make early contract picksNews Story
The Tennessee lottery board is still on track with the Nov. 24 deadline to decide on contracts for gaming vendors.Board members will determine Thursday whether they will hold a telephone conference Friday to make an early decision on the contracts, which would give gaming vendors two more days laying the infrastructure for ticket sales.Wanda Young Wilson, senior vice president for corporate affairs, said that at this stage every day counts.The goal is to start the lottery by Feb. 10. The Tenness
Nov 18, 2003, 5:03 am - Lottery News

Lottery-ticket company wooing TennesseeNews Story
Already the country's leading supplier of instant lottery tickets, Scientific Games International is now moving into online gaming and hopes to make Tennessee its newest customer.The Alpharetta, Ga.-based company is one of the companies competing for both the instant and online contracts for the new Tennessee games. Lottery giant GTECH Corp. of Rhode Island is also in the bidding.Scientific Games provides in-stant tickets for two-thirds of state lotteries and more than 50 other countries, and op
Nov 17, 2003, 4:33 am - Lottery News

Georgia man hits the Mega Millions jackpot twiceNews Story
A Georgia man held two of three winning tickets for a $70 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot, good for a cash option prize of $26.6 million before taxes, lottery officials said.Stephen Cooke of Roswell, Georgia, a recently hired bus driver by Fulton County, said Wednesday that he didn't realize until he went to claim the prize that he had double-purchased the winning numbers for Tuesday's drawing.Cooke will share the $70 million jackpot with the owner of another Mega Millions ticket purchased
Nov 13, 2003, 5:31 am - Lottery News

House GOP pushes for gamblingNews Story
Republican leaders of the Alaska state House are pushing ahead on video poker and a state lottery and are pointing to a new poll as evidence that Alaskans are interested in more gambling. This latest poll shows that Alaskans have basically changed their attitude, said House Speaker Pete Kott, a Republican from Eagle River.But less than half the people surveyed by the recent poll supported video gambling initially. It was only after the pollster read them pro-gambling information that support fo
Nov 13, 2003, 5:20 am - Lottery News

3 Tickets Split $70 Million Mega Millions JackpotNews Story
Updated: Nov. 12, 2003, 9:19 am ESTThree winning tickets were sold for Tuesday night's $70 million Mega Millions drawing.Two of those tickets in the multistate lottery were purchased in Roswell, Georgia and the third ticket was sold in Portage, Michigan, near Kalamazoo. Each ticket's annuity value is worth $23,333,333 before taxes.Georgia and Michigan Lottery officials have not yet said which retailers sold the winning tickets.Eight tickets had all five numbers but not the Mega Ball for a $175,
Nov 12, 2003, 4:39 am - Lottery News

Paul's pay checkedNews Story
With much still to do, lottery organizer faces criticism over salariesWith Tennessee's new lottery set to begin in just three months, Rebecca Paul has a lot to do and little time to do it.Paul and her senior staff must hire contractors, test software, rent offices, hire hundreds of people, train retailers and build a computer network. And those are just the highlights.To get everything done by Feb. 10, Paul works from 9 a.m. to midnight nearly every day - a schedule that hasn't left time for cul
Nov 10, 2003, 4:48 am - Lottery News

Tenn. lottery chief outlines goals during Pinnacle forumNews Story
During a Pinnacle Financial Partners forum Nov. 4, Rebecca Paul, CEO of the Tennessee Education Lottery Corp., revealed some of the pressure she has been under to get the lottery up and running by February. I've been on the job now a total of 43 days, she said. It seems like 43 years. For the next three months, she and her staff expect to be working 16 hours per day, until the first lottery ticket is sold.Paul said there are three things the lottery must do extraordinarily well. One is to know
Nov 6, 2003, 4:51 am - Lottery News