 WILOTTERY.COM
- The
Wisconsin Lottery is a lottery run by the state of Wisconsin. It
is a member of the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL). Its
games include Powerball, Megabucks, Supercash!, Badger 5, and
numerous scratch games.
As a MUSL member, Wisconsin is
eligible to offer its other games as well, such as Hot Lotto;
however, Powerball is the only multi-state game in Wisconsin as of
February 2008. The Minimum age to play is 18.
LOTTERY INFO
In the United States, the existence of lotteries
is subject to the laws of each state; there is no national
lottery.
Header from 1840 US patent on a new type of private lottery.
Private lotteries were legal in the United States in the early
1800s.[4] In fact, a number of US patents were granted on new
types of lotteries. In today's vernacular, these would be
considered business method patents.
Before the advent of state-sponsored lotteries, many illegal
lotteries thrived; for example, see Numbers game and Peter H.
Matthews. The first modern state lottery in the U.S. was
established in the state of New Hampshire in 1964; as of 2008,
lotteries are established in 42 states, the District of Columbia,
and the Virgin Islands.
The first modern interstate lottery in the U.S. was formed in 1985
and linked three of the New England states. In 1988, the
Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) was formed with Oregon,
Iowa, Kansas, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Missouri, and the
District of Columbia as its charter members; it is best known for
its "Powerball" drawing, which is designed to build up very large
jackpots. Another interstate lottery, The Big Game (now called
Mega Millions), was formed in 1996 by the states of Georgia,
Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan and Virginia as its
charter members. These states were joined by New Jersey (1999),
New York and Ohio (May 2002), Washington state (September 2002),
Texas (2003) and California (2005) for a total of 12 members.
Instant lottery tickets, also known as scratch cards, were first
introduced in the 1970s and have since become a major source of
state lottery revenue. Some states have introduced keno and video
lottery terminals (slot machines in all but name).
Other interstate lotteries include Cashola, Hot Lotto and Wild
Card 2, some of MUSL's other games.
With the advent of the Internet it became possible for people to
play lottery-style games on-line, many times for free (the cost of
the ticket being supplemented by merely seeing, say, a pop-up ad).
Three of the many websites which offer free games (after
registration) include iwinweekly.com, GuessLotto.com and the
larger iWon.com, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of IAC Search
& Media. GTech Corporation, in the United States, administers 70%
of the worldwide online and instant lottery business, according to
its website. With online gaming rules generally prohibitive,
"lottery" games face less scrutiny. This is leading to the
increase in web sites offering lottery ticket purchasing services,
charging premiums on base lottery prices. The legality of such
services falls into question across many jurisdictions, especially
throughout the United States, as the gambling laws related to
lottery play generally have not kept pace with the spread of
technology.
The most recent evolution of the lottery on the internet has
appeared on the social network Facebook. The free lottery has
weekly drawings and allows people to receive daily lottery tickets
and send their friends tickets.
Presently, many state lotteries in the USA donate large portions
of their proceeds to the public education system. However these
funds frequently replace instead of supplement conventional
funding, resulting in no additional money for education.
|
