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North Dakota Lottery a model of efficiencyNews Story
As a business with a limited number of potential customers in a sparsely populated territory, North Dakota's state lottery office has been concentrating on ways to keep its expenses down.It has only six employees, including its director. Its main computer sits in Montana, a few feet from another machine that handles the river of numbers for the Montana Powerball game and other lotteries.Because it does not sell scratch tickets, the games that let players know immediately whether they've won or
Mar 29, 2004, 4:25 am - Lottery News

Beware of Phony Prize Promotions, Lottery Schemes, and Bogus E-mailsNews Story
By now, most people who use e-mail on a regular basis are quite familiar with the word spam and what it looks like in their e-mail in-box. If it wasn't frustrating enough to sort through and fill your trash with junk (postal) mail every day or answer unsolicited telemarketing calls during the dinner hour, now these nuisances and fraudulent schemes have found a new way into our homes and offices through e-mail.According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), consumers in the United States an
Mar 26, 2004, 9:22 am - Lottery News

GTECH is in play in BrazilNews Story
Analysts don't think a political scandal will hurt the company's chances of continuing to run the country's lotteryA top Brazilian government official allegedly told two GTECH Holdings Corp. employees in 2003 that they could have a lottery contract extension.All they needed to do, said Waldomiro Diniz, the former deputy head of parliamentary affairs, was hire a consultant for between $4 million and about $6 million, according to Brazilian newspaper reports based on the employees' testimony.A lot
Mar 26, 2004, 9:15 am - Lottery News

Colorado lottery bill would tighten ethics rulesNews Story
One of the Colorado state Senate's most powerful members unveiled legislation designed to prdvent conflicts of interest at the Colorado Lottery.The legislation was created in concert with an ethics overhaul already underway at the Lottery and as the Arapahoe County district attorney is deciding whether to file criminal charges based on a recently concluded probe of the Lottery by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.The legislation, in part, would bar Lottery officials from taking jobs with agen
Mar 23, 2004, 4:24 am - Lottery News

North Dakota lottery selling first tickets this weekNews Story
After decades of arguing, thousands of petition signatures, a 19th-century bribery scandal and five statewide votes, North Dakota this week joins the crowded ranks of states that play the lottery.For its supporters, Thursday's debut of the Powerball game is a tardy acknowledgment of the pervasiveness of lotteries -- North Dakota's neighboring states all have Powerball -- and a chance for players to have fun while they drop a few dollars into the state's treasury. I think North Dakotans are just
Mar 22, 2004, 4:14 am - Lottery News

Dreams of lottery cash turn to dustNews Story
When a friendly telemarketer called a 74-year-old Bethlehem, Pennsylvania woman two weeks ago to tell her she'd won $5 million in a Canadian sweepstakes, it sounded too good to be true.But the young man on the other end of the line convinced the woman she was a winner and to claim her prize she had to send him $1,900 cash to cover taxes and fees on the winnings.Bethlehem police later learned the man was a con artist, but only after the victim took out a home loan to wire him the original amount
Mar 22, 2004, 4:11 am - Lottery News

Interim Minnesota lottery director cites progressNews Story
After about a month on the job, Michael Vekich says hes making progress in reforming the way the Minnesota State Lottery operates.Vekich told lawmakers on Tuesday that lottery officials have addressed nearly 70 percent of the state Legislative Auditors 49 recommendations in a report that was released last month.We have accomplished a lot, said Vekich, who was appointed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty to serve as interim director of the lottery in February following the suicide of Director George Andersen.T
Mar 19, 2004, 4:41 am - Lottery News

Lottery millionaire admits laundering money for drug dealersNews Story
A man who won $6.7 million in the lottery a decade ago was ordered to stay in his house for six months for laundering money for drug dealers.That was the penalty imposed Tuesday on 73-year-old Carlos Rivera, who will be electronically monitored during that time. U.S. District Judge Norman Mordue also fined Rivera $30,000 and placed him on probation for three years after his home confinement is completed.Rivera admitted concealing cash payments he received from convicted drug dealers Victor and H
Mar 17, 2004, 11:05 am - Lottery News

Foreign Lottery Scams Making Big ComebackNews Story
It starts with a postcard, a phone call -- maybe even an email -- telling you you've just won millions in a foreign lottery. It's a scam that's went underground for a while, but lately has made a comeback -- in a big way. This one here is from the Euro lottery, said Daniel Dujardin.Dujardin, 70, says it was a postcard that first hooked him in. 'You're eligible for certain amount, thousands of millions of dollars.' But of course, there was a catch. Oh, they want money up front either for taxe
Mar 17, 2004, 5:06 am - Lottery News

Luck, Be a Lady, Madame, and SenoraNews Story
Inspired by American lotteries like Mega Millions, outfits in Spain, Britain, and France have joined forces to woo European bettorsViviane Leconte isn't one to bet on the ponies -- too complicated to be much fun, in her view. But two weeks ago, Leconte, a 58-year-old receptionist in Paris, finally found her gambling Valhalla with the launch of Euro Millions, the first pan-European lottery, and won $400 on her first try. It's so easy, she beams.After more than a decade of research, three nation
Mar 1, 2004, 4:21 am - Lottery News