Lottery Service War: 1

In the United States one of the biggest ways to generate tax revenue is through lotteries. Online casinos and internet gambling have been banned in the United States so they are not a way for the tax revenues to get generated any more. It was recently announced by the Louisiana Lottery Corporation that they have signed a contract with Intralot to run the state’s lottery. The Greek lottery systems supplier will begin to run the state’s lottery starting in July of 2010. The contract states that Intralot will have to supply the Louisiana Lottery Corporation with 2,800 point of sale terminals and other sales equipment that is to last the state lottery system for the next ten years. The online casino industry has tried to get in on the lottery action for a while now, but the farthest that they have been able to get is that some states allow their citizens to buy lottery tickets for the State lottery online.

The Chief Executive Officer for Intralot, Constantinos Antonopoulos has made statements regarding the future of his company. He has made it very clear that the down turn in the economy has meant great things for his company as governments are looking for more ways to create revenue to counteract the deficits. In the United States they are definitely counting on the tax that lotteries bring in because unlike many countries the online casino industry is not a solid source of tax revenue. Antonopoulos also added that the current figures for his lottery system supplier company are up 28 percent when compared to last year’s figures. This is not the first time that Intralot has dealt business in the United States. This license that they signed with the Louisiana Lottery Corporation is the seventh lottery license contract that they have been able to obtain within the past two years.