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MasterCard illegally adds fees to Lottery playersNews Story
All you need is a dollar and a dream to play the Lottery, except if you're paying with MasterCard then it's an extra 10 bucks. Plus interest. The credit card company has quietly been treating subscription purchases of Lotto or Mega Millions tickets as cash advances making them subject to an extra fee. MasterCard is also charging higher cash advance level interest on the Lottery ticket purchases, as much as 24.9% percent in some cases. That, too, is a no-no, Lottery officials said.
Sep 17, 2010, 8:51 pm - Lottery News

Iowa Lottery celebrates 25th anniversaryNews Story
The newspaper headlines in August 1985 were a sign of the unbridled enthusiasm over the arrival of the Iowa Lottery. Lottery mania grips Iowans. Iowa lottery tickets selling like hotcakes. Eager lottery players stampede for startling 1.6 million in tickets. Twenty-five years and $4.8 billion in sales later, the Iowa Lottery remains popular statewide, generating $256 million in sales for the 12 months ending June 30. It's also a game that has changed with the times, moving from simp
Aug 6, 2010, 9:51 am - Lottery News

Refreshingly candid: Ga. Lottery chief discusses future game plansNews Story
Georgia Lottery chief Margaret DeFrancisco tries to stay ahead of the pack. In the lottery's sprawling downtown offices, DeFrancisco wheels around on a kid's scooter with a bell on the handlebars so she can avoid close calls with the walking crowd. And with the pressure mounting as demand for lottery revenue for HOPE scholarships and pre-k outstrips its growth, she's searching for new sources of money. Down the road, DeFrancisco said, don't be surprised if interactive lottery games appear
Jul 20, 2010, 9:19 am - Lottery News

'Lucky': a look at the lives of lottery winners, on HBONews Story
Airs tonight at 9 p.m. ET If it happens to you and the odds are a mere 1 in 195 million that it will what then? Do you become what you dreamed you would? asks Mike Pace, known to millions of lottery ticket buyers as the man in the tuxedo who was the longtime announcer of the Powerball drawing. Or do you become what you most deeply, secretly are? Director Jeffrey Blitz's enticing new documentary, Lucky, which airs Monday night on HBO, tries to figure that out. Blitz interviews several
Jul 19, 2010, 8:16 am - Lottery News

Fire destroys car of Powerball lottery winnerNews Story
Fire officials are investigating the cause of an early morning car fire on the Merritt Parkway that destroyed an Audi R8 belonging to a Connecticut Powerball winner. According to reports, Rahul Patel, of Newington, was driving the car, only a week old, northbound on the parkway around 9 a.m., when, between exit 46 and 47 in Fairfield, he looked up in the rearview mirror and saw smoke. As the car's engine is in the rear, Patel pulled over to see if there was something wrong with the vehicle
Jul 11, 2010, 8:38 pm - Lottery News

6 lotto winners who lost it allNews Story
The story of the 26-year-old garbage man who frittered away $15 million in lottery winnings and other tales of luck gone terribly wrong Want to know how to fritter away a multi-million lottery fortune? Ask Michael Carroll: The unemployed 26-year-old Brit has blown a 9.7 million jackpot he won in 2002 (approximately $15 million at the time) and is currently hoping to get his old job back as a garbageman. At first, Carroll lavished gifts on friends and family, but soon started spending on le
Jun 9, 2010, 6:19 am - Lottery News

Movie box office: Real betting is on the wayNews Story
People in the industry like to place little wagers on the weekend boxoffice. They're probably nothing more than five bucks, or a coffee shop lunch if x beats y this weekend. That sort of thing. That's about to change, though, in a major way. Soon, everyone will be able to bet on the boxoffice, and make or lose lots of money on the outcome. Cantor Fitzgerald's Howard Lutnick is right now beta testing something called The Cantor Exchange. Lutnick already operates the Hollywood Stock Exchange
Feb 23, 2010, 6:02 pm - Lottery News

N.Y. Lottery's Yolanda Vega celebrates 20th anniversary with the stateNews Story
Yolanda Vega, the most recognizable voice of the New York Lottery, celebrated her 20th anniversary with the state Friday and there are no signs her number is up. I'm going to continue to do the numbers until I can't see them anymore, the 54-year-old Brooklyn native told the Daily News. Vega, who has an economics degree from Hunter College, has been praised by Oprah and lampooned by Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa in a popular youtube video. She was even memorialized with a bobblehead doll.
Feb 7, 2010, 7:03 am - Lottery News

Columnist proposes lottery for new Vikings stadiumNews Story
by James Lileks, Star Tribune A lottery for a new Vikings stadium? Sure. I'll buy a ticket. Don't know why the governor is opposed to racinos, unless it's opposition to slots. I don't play them it's like giving someone a dollar, asking him to make beeping noises for 10 seconds, then watching him put the dollar in his pocket and walk away. But if you put up a bank of Viking-themed machines, even idiots like myself might play. Sorry, we're talking about gambling: especially idiots like myself,
Feb 7, 2010, 6:41 am - Lottery News

Some stores just 'luckier' than others in N.C. lotteryNews Story
Chris Pennington slid the scratch-off ticket across the counter, repeating a ritual she'd performed hundreds of times. Hours later, she'd learn that her customer had won a six-figure surprise. I actually felt sick that day knowing I'd held $100,000 and gave it away, she said. The manager of Will's Food Store in Mount Holly, Pennington has seen her share of others' good fortune. Will's boasts the most lottery payouts of any retailer in Gaston County, according to figures from the N.C. Educ
Feb 1, 2010, 7:48 am - Lottery News