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// PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL // May/June 2016
six lottery members to 37 lottery members
and from starting sales of less than $100 mil-
lion to annual sales approaching $7 billion.
Linq3 Partners with Verifone to
bring Play at the Pump Lottery to
Gas Stations
Scientific Games’ Technology
Integrates Payment Card
Purchasing Solution in Pennsylvania,
enabling consumers to use credit and debit
cards to purchase lottery instant and draw
games via payment processing technology
directly integrated with lottery gaming sys-
tems technology. At the center of the Penn-
sylvania Lottery pilot is Scientific Games’
unique omni-channel enterprise service bus
(ESB) technology, a service-oriented gam-
ing platform designed to securely integrate
third-party products and services such as
card payment processing. The payment so-
lution developed for the Lottery is approved
by the Multi-state Lottery Association
(MUSL) and the card processing terminals
are Europay, Mastercard and Visa (EMV)
and Payment Card Industry (PCI) compli-
ant for financial security standards.
Court Rejects Petition to Place
Casino Question on Maine Ballot
Tennessee Official Declares Fantasy
Sports Illegal
Delaware Gaming Revenue Up
Significantly Compared with 2015
Mississippi Lottery Proposal Defeated
Kentucky Lottery Goes On-Line
The Kentucky Lottery became the third state
to offer lottery sales online. Michigan and
Georgia allow online gambling; Minnesota
did, but then banned online sales in 2015
after faith-based groups protested. The
Kentucky Lottery expects about $7 million
in online sales for fiscal year 2017; for fiscal
year 2016, total lottery sales are expected
to be $994.5 million. The move to online
gambling is seen as a way to attract younger
customers who are accustomed to online
buying. In Europe, where online lottery sales
have been available for more than a decade,
70 percent of purchases of Internet lottery
tickets are to players aged 18 to 35. In Ken-
tucky, only 25 percent of people in that age
range bought a lottery ticket in the past year.
Online sales are expected to help, rather than
dampen sales at the 3,200 lottery retailers
in Kentucky. In Michigan, store sales rose 6
percent after online sales started; in Georgia,
retail sales rose 4 percent. Kentucky Lottery
officials said they have set controls designed
by the National Council on Problem Gam-
bling that safeguard players.
Michigan Lottery and PayPal Provide
Payment Options to On-Line Players
To withdraw funds and place them in a
PayPal account, players first must have suc-
cessfully deposited funds into their online
accounts using a PayPal account. Since their
debut in 2014, more than 276,000 players
have registered to play the Michigan Lot-
tery’s online games.
Michigan Senators introduce Senate
Bill to Create the Lawful Internet
Gaming Act
which requires the licens-
ing and certification of persons to engage
in Internet gaming; creates the division of
Internet gaming; provides for the powers
and duties of the division of Internet gaming
and other state governmental officers and
entities; imposes fees; imposes a tax on the
conduct of Internet gaming; creates the In-
ternet gaming fund; prohibits certain acts in
relation to applications for licenses and cer-
tification and in relation to Internet gaming
and prescribes penalties for those violations;
to require the promulgation of rules; and to
provides remedies.
Michigan Bill may allow International
Liquidity Sharing
An online gambling bill might permit poker
players in the state of Michigan to play in
international liquidity pools. The proposed
legislation states that
“a wager may be ac-
cepted from an individual who is not physically
present in this state … including any foreign
nation.”
The proposal is subject to the state
sanctioning such multijurisdictional wa-
gers and it must not violate federal laws.
Nevada and Delaware signed an agree-
ment enabling the sharing of player pools,
which was realized in 2015, but both states’
relatively small populations still present chal-
lenges. This is the first time that U.S. gam-
bling regulations have appeared to expressly
pursue the idea of international liquidity
sharing. Michigan is one of only three states
to offer online lottery products.
Delay in Payments Hurt Illinois Lottery
Before a state appropriation allowed for
lottery winnings to be paid out in Illinois,
lottery winners waited months for their
checks. Illinois Lottery Acting Director
B.R. Lane told a Senate appropriations
committee that the lottery has not recov-
ered from the decline in sales caused by the
payment delay. Lane said it is difficult to
judge how the Illinois Lottery brand was
damaged during the time when winners
were waiting on their winnings.
Camelot Global has opened a North
American Headquarters in Chicago
The Florida Lottery’s Newest
WHEEL OF FORTUNE Scratch-Off
Ticket Sets Two Sales Records in
its First Two Weeks
Sales for the newest $5 Scratch-Off game,
WHEEL OF FORTUNE, exceeded $6.1
million in its first week; setting a record for
the highest first week of sales by any game at
that price point. The game also set a record
for having the highest single week sales ever
for a $5 game, with $7.6 million in sales
in its second week, eclipsing the previous
record set by $500,000 GOLD RUSH in
2015 by 10%.