The proximity of Christmas motivated the slogan of the extraordinary Draw of the National Lottery: “Christmas is close and the best products disappear quickly from the shelves and the shop windows. Think about it… Today you can pick your favorite number, find it and wait calmly for luck to knock at your door. But tomorrow… Tomorrow you will have to settle with what’s left at the bargains table. So, if you have a hunch or an intuition look for your ticket now at the official agencies of the National Lottery”.

The traditional draw will be next Thursday, December 21st, and it will have $4.000.000 in prizes: a first prize of $2.000.000 and then 10 0km-cars and five electric appliances.

The lucky ladies won £153,106 after matching five numbers and a bonus ball in last Wednesday's draw.

But the friends first thought they had won a much smaller amount of £3,000.

"We went to Thurston post office and when the postmistress put it through the computer we were told we should sit down," Frances said.

The National Superintendent of Health in Colombia, José Renan Trujillo, explained that the Choco, Bolivar and Libertador lotteries, have a very big debt to the health system, and they were asked to pay it off soon. In case that they do not pay the money they owe to the Health system, they will be closed by the State.

“There are other lotteries, however, that are very efficient, but some are forgetting the obligation of transferring that they have with the health sector. I hope it’s possible to conciliate with the entities that are in debt, but in case we can’t we will intervene to close the lotteries”, Trujillo said.

This month, Nebraska voters rejected a proposal that would have allowed video keno machines in bars. The proposal was seen by some people as a way of raising funds for the community but the majority believed it would lead to gambling addictions and clandestine forms of gambling.

In spite of the vote against video keno, officials assure that the enthusiasm for traditional keno has not been diminished. More than seventeen bars and restaurants had requested keno licenses because they believed the amendment would pass. Now, they say they are interested in the pencil and paper version of the game.

The tickets for the first raffle in the history of Michigan Lottery’s will be sold as of this week. Only 500,000 tickets have been printed, they cost $20 and will be available at Lottery retailers that sell Daily Lotto and Club Keno tickets.

The raffle offers five prizes of $1 million, ten prizes of $100,000 and 750 prizes of $1,000. “I would not be surprised to see this sell out in two to three weeks,” Lottery Director Gary Peters said. “This is the type of game for people who might not play regularly, but look at the odds of being pretty good for $20.”

From November 12th through the 17th, in the Convention Center Raffles City of Singapore, the World Lottery Association Convention & Trade Show 2006 (WLA2006) is going to be celebrated. The motto of the convention will be: “Beyond a world of numbers”.

According to the organizers of the event, the intention of this convention is to transform the organizations to be able to answer more easily to the opportunities and the risks they bring along, in order to face the competition pressures that are harder every time.

Nebraska voters rejected this week Initiative 421, a constitutional amendment that would have allowed video keno machines in bars to replace or add to traditional keno. The initiative was rejected on a 61-39 percent decision.

“Gambling issues will never go away in Nebraska, but we are thanking God for victory”, Pat Loontjer said after the results of the ballot were revealed. Loontjer is a member of Gambling With the Good Life, a group that led the effort against video keno.

To put taxes to the lotteries of the country would lead them to bankruptcy in the short term, the assistants of the National Chance and Luck Games Congress that took place in Pereira concluded.

The lotteries are in debt with health, William Franco said and what is needed is to strengthen their income not debilitate them as government authorities are now trying to do.

A new year is close and so is New Year’s draw of the Minnesota Millionaire Raffle, the lottery’s newest game. For only $10, a six-digit ticket can make anyone the winner of $1 million in the drawing of New Year’s Day.

The problem is that only 500,000 tickets have been issued. “When they're done, they're done. So encourage people to buy early to secure the winning numbers,” Clint Harris, Executive Director of the Minnesota Lottery explained.

The Nebraska Supreme Court decided that the initiative that would allow video keno in the state could stay on the November ballot. According to the Court, the initiative does not violate the Nebraska Constitution’s re-submission rule, which prevents similar ballot measures from being submitted more than once in three years.

“Because the Video Keno Initiative is not the same in essential substance as certain initiatives submitted in 2004, we conclude that the resubmission clause does not bar the Video Keno Initiative from being placed on the ballot,” the Supreme Court said.