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Missouri Lottery outperforms every other stateNews Story
The Missouri Lottery is the fastest-growing game in the United States, according to an annual survey by International Gaming Wagering Business.The Missouri Lottery posted 21.3 percent growth in the 2003 fiscal year that just ended on top of 15 percent growth the previous year, outperforming every other lottery, the trade publication said in its September issue. It is very difficult to string together two outstanding years in the current environment, so Missouri's accomplishment is all the mo
Sep 16, 2003, 3:38 am - Lottery News

Texas lottery considers eliminating lotto ballsNews Story
The familiar white, numbered balls that have determined the winners of hundreds of millions of dollars in Texas lottery prizes may get bounced. The Texas Lottery Commission is taking a first, cautious step toward using a computer to replace the rubber balls used since the games began in 1992.It's early in the conceptual stage, but lottery officials have looked at computerized random number generator systems that, linked with animations, are used by a handful of lotteries to pick the winning nu
Sep 15, 2003, 4:16 am - Lottery News

Lotto Plus Going Back To Just Plain LottoNews Story
The long odds of winning the Washington state lottery will get slightly shorter.Starting Oct. 5, the state will drop the Plus from Lotto Plus and change the game to increase the number of winners.In Lotto Plus, players pick five numbers out of 43 and one number out of 23, giving them a 1-in-11 million chance of winning the jackpot in the Wednesday and Saturday drawings.The Saturday jackpot was $41 million, the highest it has been.Starting next month, six winning numbers will be randomly chosen
Sep 15, 2003, 4:08 am - Lottery News

Powerball Jackpot Grows to $35 MillionNews Story
America's favorite lottery game is on the rise again. There were no Powerball jackpot winners Saturday but 336,155 players across the nation won a total of more than $3 million in prizes. Because no one correctly matched all six numbers in Saturday's drawing the jackpot will grow to an estimated $35 million.The cash option for the Wednesday, September 17 drawing will be an estimated $18.3 million.The numbers drawn were: 6, 10, 19, 28, 32, and the Powerball was 39. The Power Play multiplier was
Sep 15, 2003, 4:04 am - Lottery News

Mega Millions Lottery Disappoints, Officials SayNews Story
The whole point of the Mega Millions lottery was huge jackpots, headline jackpots, crowds-mobbing-the-gas-stations jackpots.But more than a year after the multi-state Mega Millions lottery was created, the top prizes haven't been the record-breakers organizers had hoped -- leaving the 10 member states still waiting for a lottery windfall to cushion falling tax revenues.You might call it a case of bad luck. The lottery grew out of the seven-state Big Game, which set an American record for a singl
Sep 15, 2003, 3:59 am - Lottery News

Michigan Lottery Adds New GamesNews Story
Bettors will have more ways to gamble in Michigan next month, and they'll be able to do it in bars and restaurants across the state.State officials hope the new games, which include Club Keno and pull-tab games, will draw more money into state coffers as the struggle to balance the budget continues.The Michigan Lottery saw ticket sales increase 4.5 percent to $1.68 billion in the budget year that ended in September 2002, according to its most recent annual report.Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who prop
Sep 15, 2003, 3:53 am - Lottery News

Florida Lawmaker: Large unclaimed lotto prizes should go to educationNews Story
Instead of using an unclaimed $50 million Lotto jackpot to try to get more people to gamble, the state should have been able to spend the money on schools, a state lawmaker said Friday.Rep. Charlie Justice said he plans to file a bill that would allow large unclaimed prizes -- like the $50 million that a ticket holder failed to claim this week before a 180-day deadline passed -- to be used for education.Right now, all unclaimed money returns to the Lottery, which has to use it for promotions. Th
Sep 12, 2003, 9:58 pm - Lottery News

Scientific Games to buy online lottery operatorNews Story
Scientific Games Corp., a maker of betting equipment and lottery systems, on Friday said it would acquire International Game Technology's on-line lottery operator for $143 million in cash.The agreement to buy IGT Online Entertainment Systems will give Scientific Games, based in New York, access to online lottery systems that produce lotto-type game tickets in seven states and the Caribbean.IGT Online, which also supports systems sold to customers in Korea, Norway, Switzerland and Shanghai, gener
Sep 12, 2003, 9:54 pm - Lottery News

Minn. Lottery cuts staff, advertising, promotions despite record salesNews Story
The Minnesota Lottery will lay off 34 employees, nearly one-fifth of its workforce of 191, next month to meet state-imposed budget cuts. But the state-run gambling operation still projects a near-record year for sales because of changes in its popular multimillion-dollar Powerball game.Most of the job cuts will come from the lottery's marketing staff, including 16 positions in field offices in Eagan, Brainerd, Detroit Lakes, Marshall, Owatonna and Virginia, assistant director Geno Fragnito said
Sep 12, 2003, 9:46 pm - Lottery News

Bredesen defends state lottery CEO's annual pay packageNews Story
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen said Thursday that Rebecca Paul's potential $752,000 annual salary package involves a much more businesslike arrangement than a similar amount paid to former University of Tennessee President John Shumaker. I don't think that's legitimate at all, said the governor when asked at a brief news conference if it was fair to compare the two pay packages. I think there's much more accountability in this process, Bredesen said. For example, Rebecca Paul has a job now th
Sep 12, 2003, 3:32 am - Lottery News