"Across US, lotteries being revamped to boost revenue; 26 states saw sales increase in traditional games" by Amanda J. Crawford Bloomberg News / December 9, 2011
After total lottery income nationwide fell for the first time in more than a decade in 2009, states redoubled their efforts to attract more players to support educational and environmental programs and help fill the gap from slumping tax revenue.
Even as unemployment remained high and the economy dragged, players in many states responded. Of the 43 states with lotteries, 26 saw revenue grow in traditional games in the last fiscal year.
--NOMORE--"
Isn't that sad?
"Lottery Sales Rise to Record as Cash-Hungry States Search for More Revenue" by Amanda J. Crawford Nov 30, 2011
Wow, that's strange. Globe picked up the "news" story about 10 days late.
Facing growing unemployment, record home foreclosures, declining tax revenue and an annual budget deficit that reached $3 billion, Arizona revamped a key money- making enterprise: the state lottery.
The declining tax revenue proves there never was a recovery.
It held focus groups, introduced new games, printed fancier tickets, recruited new retailers, increased jackpots, plunged into social media and upped its advertising budget by almost 50 percent.
Is that what you wanted your tax dollars spent on?
The gamble paid off: Ticket sales rose 14 percent from fiscal 2009 to 2010 -- the largest increase in the country, according to Rockville, Maryland-based lottery research firm La Fleur’s. In the 12 months that ended June 30, sales were up almost 6 percent more to a record $584 million.
For who?
“Especially during a recessionary period, players were looking for a reason to play the game,” said Jeff Hatch-Miller, 66, executive director of the Arizona Lottery in an interview at his Phoenix office. “What we saw was people were pulling back on their expenditures unless they had some value-added propositions.”
I might get lucky -- or be literally and figuratively left in the red.
Arizona is not alone in bidding for more lottery dollars. After total lottery income nationwide fell for the first time in more than a decade in 2009, states redoubled their efforts to attract more players to support educational and environmental programs and help fill the gap from slumping tax revenue.
Preying on the poor and desperate is considered good policy (sigh).
Even as unemployment remained high and the economy dragged, players in many states responded.
Of the 43 states with lotteries, 26 saw revenue grow in traditional games in the last fiscal year, with total sales up 3 percent to $56 billion, according to La Fleur’s.
Ticket sales in at least 17 of those states set records, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, and several states are on track to hit all-time highs this year.
Many states are considering expanded gambling as well. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed legislation Nov. 22 authorizing as many as three resort casinos in his state, while officials in Georgia and Florida are weighing similar proposals. Interstate gambling online is barred by federal law. Washington, D.C., and other jurisdictions are looking at launching Internet poker within their boundaries.
Massachusetts gave the go-ahead on casinos but is banning Internet poker.
At least 28 states have considered lottery or gaming-related bills since 2010 to close budget gaps, according to data from the Washington-based National Conference of State Legislatures.
Overall, states got an average 2.4 percent of revenue from lotteries and other forms of gambling in 2009, according to a report last year from the Albany, New York-based Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government.
While efforts to expand casinos or legalize other forms of gaming get the most attention, lotteries are still the primary source of government gambling revenue for states, the report notes. Across the country, state lotteries are rebranding, adding games, recruiting new retailers and moving online to attract new players.
In Tennessee, some lawmakers are calling for the lottery to accept credit and debit cards for purchases that now require cash.
With a $5 debit fee on top of it, or.... (blog editor beginning to get annoyed)
A bill in New Jersey would allow tickets to be sold on the Internet or via smartphones.
And several states including Ohio and Arizona are looking at following the lead of Illinois, which in March became the first lottery in the nation to turn over management, marketing and sales to a private company to seek higher returns.
So which well-connected corporation is going to land that tax loot load (long sigh)?
“You have politicians not wanting to raise taxes right now, so lotteries are good ways to raise money,” said David G. Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
My position is government already has way too much money. They don't need to raise taxes. I mean, they sure to pay out enough in debt service to banks and cutting corporations welfare checks.
California is poised to have its best year of lottery sales ever after a 2010 law signed by then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger allowed bigger prize payouts, spurring interest in the games and supporting higher-priced tickets.
Arnie's lottery legacy.
Sales increased 13 percent in the year that ended June 30 - - the second-highest growth rate in the country behind Arkansas, where the lottery was in its first full year of operation.
At the California Lottery, the popularity of a new $10 “Scratchers” ticket introduced last month is expected to push sales this year above $4 billion, said Alex Traverso, a spokesman.
I've got an itch I can never scratch.
“This is shaping up to be a record year,” he said.
How 'bout you, 'murkn? Is it a record year for you?
The Florida Lottery, which is rebranding to counter slow growth, is also looking at potentially record-setting sales above $4.17 billion in fiscal 2012 after the lottery went where no state lottery had gone before: Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Tickets went on sale in about 30 smaller Wal-Mart grocery markets in Florida last month -- a pilot program being watched by lottery officials nationwide.
While lottery tickets can be bought in some grocery store chains, they aren’t sold in drugstores or so-called big-box retailers -- and Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart is the “king of the big-box stores,” said David Bishop, a deputy secretary of the Florida Lottery.
Florida officials hope the retailer will eventually allow sales in its supercenters, Bishop said. “It is the brick wall that every lottery in the country has wanted to break through,” he said.
Hey, leave those kids alone!
Is that anything like the pay wall?
The company will evaluate the Florida pilot program to decide if it will expand lottery sales in that state or others, said Ashley Hardie, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman.
Where the printed Globe piece ended.
Larger prizes have been a strategy across the country to get more people to play.
Yeah, let's base state budgets on lottery.
Three money managers in Greenwich, Connecticut, one of the nation’s richest towns, claimed the biggest jackpot ever won in the state -- $254 million -- after investing $1 in a multistate Powerball lottery ticket.
The rich literally get richer.
States are also exploring selling through the Internet. The New York Lottery, which began offering ticket subscriptions online in 2005, plans to allow individual ticket sales and expand to more games on its website as soon as next year, said William Murray, a deputy director. No state now sells individual tickets online, according to the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries, an industry association.
The Minnesota State Lottery’s move last year to follow New York, Virginia and other states by offering online subscriptions recently came under fire from some lawmakers. David Hann, the assistant senate majority leader who previously sponsored legislation to get rid of Minnesota’s lottery, called the move and other efforts by states to encourage gambling during tough economic times “reprehensible.”
“We have a situation where a lot of people are struggling financially -- the last thing we should be doing is telling people to go out and gamble,” said Hann, a Republican from Eden Prairie, in a telephone interview.
I kind of agree; I think it is a wasteful and vile vice.
An effort by the Oregon Lottery to market to a younger generation with a “hipper” website was put on hold by Governor John Kitzhaber in October after critics charged that the site’s games and graphics could attract underage players. “The ORcade” was planned as an 18-and-older website with free games and second-chance drawings for losing “Scratch-it” tickets, said Chuck Baumann, a lottery spokesman.
No money would change hands.
Baumann said lottery revenue has been flat and the average player is age 50.
“The reason we exist is to make money for the state,” Baumann said. The lottery supports public schools, parks, salmon restoration and economic development. “We were looking for new ways to do that,” he said.
So where are all the taxes going anyway?
While sales in several states are still lagging, for some lotteries it is as if the recession never happened.
Well, for some upper-income quarters and interests it never did.
In Nebraska, with one of the smallest lottery operations in the country, sales were up for the eighth consecutive year. Maryland posted its 14th straight year of record-breaking sales in its traditional lottery, which supports education, public health, public safety and environmental programs and is the fourth- largest source of state revenue....
So go play a number, folks.
--MORE--"
And sticking with my theme:
"Stranded 86-year-old man survives AZ storm" by Bob Christie Associated Press / December 8, 2011
PHOENIX—They spent 60 years together and traveled to Africa, China, South America and other parts of the world.
But it was a relatively short drive from the Phoenix area to their home in Albuquerque, N.M., and a fateful decision to take a forest road as a shortcut that separated Dana and Elizabeth Davis.
They became stranded in their Buick and stayed in the car for five nights through two snowstorms, until it ran out of gas and they decided to walk to safety. Elizabeth Davis, 82, collapsed and died, and 86-year-old Dana Davis survived after walking eight miles in the cold and spent a freezing night under a tree before being rescued.
Snow? In Arizona?
It's getting to the point where I am holding the global fart-belching crowd culpable for this s***.
He was recuperating Thursday in a hospital in Globe, and was in good condition.
Authorities provided new details Thursday about Davis' amazing survival in the cold in the rugged mountains east of Phoenix.
He tried to revive his wife, but kept moving after realizing she had died.
Davis kept a detailed map that would allow rescuers to find his wife's body, whether he made it to safety or not, said Detective Johnny Holmes of the Gila County Sheriff's Office. He also left items such as a sunglass case or pieces of yarn tied on a tree at various forks in the unpaved mountain road as markers, Holmes said.
"I think the main intention ... in making the map was that if someone found him that they could go get his wife out," Holmes said. "That was his main concern with me when I spoke with him."
Davis was found walking along a road and was rescued by a wildlife officer with the San Carlos Apache Tribe on Wednesday morning....
--more--"
"Man tells of stranding ordeal in mountains; Wife died as they tried to hike out" by Bob Christie Associated Press / December 10, 2011
An 86-year-old man described yesterday how he and his wife spent five grueling days stranded in their car in the rugged Arizona mountains during a snow storm, watching his spouse collapse to her death in the freezing cold as they tried to walk for help.
Dana Davis of Albuquerque, N.M., spoke at a news conference yesterday at the hospital where is recovering and is in good condition, despite walking eight miles and spending a night under a tree after losing his wife.
--NOMORE--"
More:
He said he and his 82-year-old wife Elizabeth rationed sandwiches, cookies, chocolate bars and juice. Elizabeth wrote letters to her children and grandchildren. They ran the engine on their Buick at night to stay warm, but finally ran out of gas on Tuesday and decided to venture out for help.
They bundled up in multiple layers and put socks on their hands for warmth. But it was too much for Elizabeth.
"She was pretty convinced she was not going to get out of there," he said. "Me, I'm pretty stubborn. I was going to walk until I found someone."
He knew he would have to forge ahead to survive, so he moved her body off the road and kept walking. He strung pieces of yarn along his route -- his wife was an avid knitter -- to guide rescuers to the body.
He walked from 10 a.m. until sunset and found a spot under a tree to spend the night. The next day, he resumed his walk in attempt to find any sense of civilization as he encountered snow that was piled several feet high along the road.
Finally, an officer with the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation appeared in an SUV and he was saved....
--more--"
That is a heartbreaking love story.
This is not:
"Abuse cases botched in Ariz., police say" December 05, 2011|Associated Press
EL MIRAGE, Ariz. - More than 400 sex crimes reported to the Maricopa County sheriff during a three-year period ending in 2007 - including dozens of alleged child molestations - were inadequately investigated and in some instances not checked at all, according to current and former police officers familiar with the cases.
In El Mirage alone, where Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office was providing contract police services, officials discovered at least 32 reported child molestations - with victims as young as 2 years old - where the sheriff’s office failed to follow through, even though suspects were known in all but six cases.
Many of the victims were children of illegal immigrants, said a retired El Mirage police official.
The botched investigations have served as an embarrassment to a department whose sheriff is the self-described “America’s Toughest Sheriff’’ and a national hero to conservatives on the immigration issue....
--more--"
Gotta keep 'em out!
"Arizona taking donations for border fence; $255,000 has been collected, lawmaker says" November 25, 2011|By Amanda Lee Myers and Jacques Billeaud, Associated Press
PHOENIX - Arizona is taking on immigration once again, with state lawmakers collecting donations from the public to put fencing along every inch of the state’s porous Mexican border in a first-of-its-kind effort.
The idea came from state Senator Steve Smith, a Republican who says that people from across the nation have donated about $255,000 to the project since July, when the state launched a fund-raising website that urges visitors to “show the world the resolve and the can-do spirit of the American people.’’
Let's see if we can best China!
Smith acknowledges he has a long way to go to make the fence a reality. The $255,000 collected will barely cover a half mile of fencing.
Smith estimates that the total supplies alone will cost $34 million, or about $426,000 a mile. Much of the work is expected to be done by prisoners at 50 cents an hour.
We call that slave labor.
The fence is Arizona’s latest attempt to force a debate on whether the federal government is doing enough to stop illegal immigration.
They are not. As I've often noted, the globalist globe-kickers benefit from the current status quo and are simply going through a lot of arm whirling.
Key provisions of the state’s contentious immigration bill were suspended by a judge, and Governor Jan Brewer is appealing to the US Supreme Court to get them reinstated. Brewer also signed the fencing bill.
Critics of the private fence plan say the idea is a misguided, piecemeal approach to border issues that will prove to be ineffective and hugely expensive. They point to the billions of dollars spent by the federal government to build fencing that hasn’t stopped illegal immigration.
“You’re going to get 50 yards of fencing, if that,’’ says Alfredo Gutierrez, a former Democratic state senator and immigrant-rights advocate who ran for governor in 2002.
But Smith and other supporters don’t care.
They say the federal government has done little to secure the border and that additional fencing will close gaps exploited by smugglers and illegal immigrants.
Even if the fence isn’t completed, Smith and others believe the project will send a message to Washington.
Not only am I tired of symbolic messages, they don't hear them there for some rea$on.
They have found support for the idea from Border Patrol agents....
George McCubbin, a Border Patrol agent in Casa Grande and president of the National Border Patrol Council, the agency’s union, believes the federal government needs to crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants, increase penalties against those caught in the country illegally, cut off social services for others, and put more agents at the border.
The fence project is being overseen by the 15-member Joint Border Security Advisory Committee, made up of lawmakers, state law enforcement officials, and four sheriffs, including Maricopa County’s Joe Arpaio.
That's why they didn't investigate the sex abuse.
The committee meets once a month and will decide when and where to put up the new fencing and what construction firms win bids.
That is what this is all about: getting tax loot into someone's hands.
Wherever they put it - private, state, or federal land - they will need to get approval.
Smith is confident the state will comply, so he’s focusing his efforts on private landowners.
It isn’t clear if the federal government will allow the fence on land it manages.
--more--"
Go ahead, try and get over that fence:
"6 people die in Arizona plane crash" November 25, 2011|Associated Press
PHOENIX - A small airplane with three men and three young children on board slammed into a sheer cliff in the mile-high mountains east of Phoenix while going about 200 miles per hour, killing all aboard, the Pinal County sheriff said....
:-(
Their number came up.
--more--"
