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Connecticut Lottery Offers Treasure Hunt

"The Connecticut Lottery Corp.'s first interactive computer game, Treasure Tower, will go on sale March 6. Players will pay $15 for a starter kit containing a reusable computer disk and four instant tickets, then fire up their home computers and play the Babylon-themed cartoon lottery game. Additional tickets will cost $4.

"Players will not go online to play Treasure Tower, an important distinction since Internet betting is illegal in the United States. But the game's packaging does represent a new use of technology by the lottery corporation, and its video game-like aspect has prompted concerns that it will appeal to minors.

"…Connecticut Lottery Corp. spokeswoman Diane Patterson said customers will be able to play Treasure Tower in the traditional method, simply by scratching the latex off their tickets. But some players will enjoy what she called the `extended play' feature of the CD-ROM.

"…Patterson said the game would have a payout of about 70 percent, with the odds of winning a prize one in 3.71. If the lottery sells its entire stock of Treasure Tower games, sales could reach $8 million and the lottery corporation would return about $1.2 million of that to the state's general fund, Patterson said.

"…Treasure Tower was created by the Canadian company Ingenio, along with six other CD-ROM lottery games. Ingenio is a subsidiary of the Quebec lottery, Loto-Quebec, and holds a worldwide patent on CD-ROM lotteries.

"The interactive lottery games, which are essentially scratch lottery tickets in a high-technology package, have been offered in Iowa, Kentucky, Switzerland and Belgium, as well as in Canada. When Iowa introduced the game in 2000, the state lottery marketed it in shopping malls and critics complained it was too appealing to young people…"

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