I-Lottery Update - October 2004

Swiss Lottery Joins EuroMillions

The two companies operating the lottery in Switzerland, Loterie Romande and Swisslos, announced last week plans to join the multi-national EuroMillions lottery.

The decision, which company officials said was made in order to maintain market share, allows Swiss residents to be a part of the first EuroMillions draw slated for Oct. 8.

The organizers of EuroMillions guarantee a one-in-24 chance of a win, and say players have a one-in-76 million chance of walking away with the jackpot.

The first nine-country draw will take place in Paris on October 8, with newcomers Switzerland, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, Austria and Portugal joining the British, the Spanish and the French.

With the new member countries, it will become the world's biggest lottery with a total population of 200 million.

Former Camelot Director Joins Million-2-1

Ian Milligan, a former director with Camelot (the national lottery in the UK), has joined mobile gaming company Million 2-1.

Milligan will take on a similar role at Million 2-1, which produces online and mobile phone prize competitions, online fixed-prize betting, and regional lotteries.

In June 2004, the company launched The Manchester Lottery, a non-profit lottery for local charities in the Greater Manchester area.

Czech Minister Removes Lottery Director

Czech Republic Finance Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, removed the director of the department for state supervision over lottery Michal Morawski from his post last week and gave no indication for the dismissal.

Press reports have indicated that Morawski may have been involved with bribes and other scandals with lottery operators and other vendors, but a spokesperson for Sobotka's office would only confirm the removal of Morawski and had no comment when asked to give a reason for the decision.

ASEAN Hoping to Create Regional Lottery

Plans are in the works with officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to create a region-wide charity lottery.

The lottery would offer massive cash prizes as incentives for players and then donate profits from the operation to designated charities throughout the region.

Somchainuk Engtrakul, head of ASEAN's Lottery Organization, said that members of the region-wide grouping hoped to forge links among the various member states, transfer lottery technology, and reduce the risks faced by lottery boards.

Conceding that Thailand and Laos were trailing far behind other ASEAN members in terms of lottery technology, Somchainuk said that other countries had already introduced online lottery sales.

Lottery representatives from Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Loas, Vietnam, the Philippines and Hong Hong attended the meeting. Each country would have to discuss the legal implications of the move before any tickets could be issued, Somchainuk said.

Net Entertainment Tabbed to Develop Globet Lotto Game

Interactive gaming software supplier Net Entertainment announced last month that it was picked to develop an Internet-based Lotto game for European online sports betting firm Globet.

Net Entertainment CEO Pontus Lindwall said in a release regarding the deal that the Lotto game was a newly developed game created specifically for Globet.

"This project shows the strength of our gaming platform where we can easily develop completely new games based on the general platform that we've built and improved over the years," he said.

Lottery No Longer Most Popular Game in the UK

A new report by the Evening Standard published last week in London showed that Premium Bonds overtook the National Lottery as the nation's favorite game of chance.

The newspaper said the latest official figures show sales of the Government-backed bonds increased by 57 percent to £7.5 billion last year, compared to Lottery ticket revenue of £4.6 billion.

Financial experts say the bonds are more attractive to many because each "ticket" is entered into every monthly draw; one recent £1 million winning ticket was bought in 1959. And they can be sold when you need your money back, making them the only gamble where your stake is not at risk.

The odds of winning the top prize for a £1 stake are much better in the Lottery - at 14 million to one, compared with 25 billion to one - yet Premium Bonds are increasingly attracting serious investors fed up with dismal stock market performance.

The value of bonds a person can hold was lifted from £20,000 to £30,000 this year.