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) Lottery trots out 'horse' game
The Massachusetts State Lottery made a big bet on virtual horse racing yesterday, unveiling plans for 1,500 video racing terminals at a time when interest in live racing has waned.The Lottery will begin to install Daily Racing Game machines within the next few weeks at "family restaurants," bars and other venues, spokesman Dan Rosenfeld said.
Lottery officials are looking to a similar race game launched successfully in Maryland and betting on a big payoff, with projections of $160 million a year once the terminals are in place by spring, Rosenfeld said.
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) Lottery expands Keno with cartoon horses
The Massachusetts State Lottery, which unveiled a $20 scratch ticket last month, is now dramatically expanding its Keno racing game and switching from virtual cars to cartoon thoroughbreds.The new initiatives signal the lottery's determination to get back on track after a rare down year last year. Revenue overall at the lottery fell 1.4 percent in fiscal 2007 and lottery aid to cities and towns declined by $59 million, or 6.2 percent.
Lottery officials said the revamped Daily Race Game would be introduced as soon as possible at the existing 220 locations where the car racing game is being played and then be rolled out to a total of 1,500 locations by April. The game is expected to generate $160 million in annual revenue once fully operational.
Dan Rosenfeld, the lottery spokesman, said each location will have dual monitors, one for the regular Keno game, where players bet $1 and try to pick winning numbers, and one for the racing game, where players bet $1 and try to pick winning numbered horses. More>>
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) Fallon 'gives up' big lead to lose race
LONDON � Champion jockey Kieren Fallon lost a horse race after holding a five-length lead in the home stretch, which sparked an investigation into race-fixing, a prosecutor said yesterday.Fallon and five others are accused of interfering with the running of horses to ensure they lost 27 races in Britain between December 2002 and September 2004. They are charged with conspiracy to defraud customers who used the online betting site Betfair.
Prosecutor Jonathan Caplan said an independent racing steward who watched footage of the race noted that Fallon was five or six lengths ahead of rest of the field on horse Ballinger Ridge with two furlongs left. �But Fallon then dramatically slows his momentum to the point where he is doing virtually nothing,� Caplan told the jury at the Old Bailey. More>>