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Virginia Lottery Goes Online
Virginia Lottery Goes Online
The Virginia state lottery has dumped its daily televised drawings in favor of internet drawings in an attempt to cut costs and move into the 21st century. The Virginia lottery finally realized that most lottery players now check their numbers online. In January the Virginia lottery started internet only video streams for its daily drawings and its popular twice-a-week Win for Life drawings. Lottery officials expect the move online to save more than $1 million dollars in operating costs during the next fiscal year. Virginia is trying to deal with a $4 billion budget deficit. While the move online is primarily a cost cutting measure the lottery recognizes that most players now rely on online sources for lottery information. Virginia Lottery Executive Director Paula Otto stated, “The Internet is actually a more popular way of people getting their numbers now.”
Lottery officials report they have received a few complaints about the new policy, mostly from older people with no internet access or computer skills. An informal survey done by the Virginia lottery revealed that most states now use a combination of televised drawings and online feeds for drawings and most state lotteries also have lottery phone hot lines and email alerts for players to check lotto numbers. The executive director of the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries said that most state lotteries are looking for ways to cut costs and operating expenses. Executive director David Gale stated, “State budgets are a mess. Forget about lottery budgets because they’re probably holding their own to tell you the truth.” Most states use lottery revenues for education, senior citizens, wildlife and tourism. Council of State Governments fiscal analyst Sujit CanagaRetna says he is not surprised by Virginia’s move. CanagaRetna stated, “States are looking at every possible way to corral some dollars together just to improve their bottom line. If you do a whole bunch of these little things, it could potentially add up to something significant.”
Lottery players, especially younger players, depend on the internet for information and are rapidly shifting to web based programming. The shift to online technology could mean that online lottery tickets may be the norm in the very near future. Illinois and Iowa are exploring the sale of online lottery tickets. At the present time Federal law prevents the purchase of lottery tickets online but that is expected to change soon. Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank has sponsored a bill that would clear the way for the sale of online lottery tickets. Its about time lotteries embraced 21st century technology!
Movies on the world of poker
Poker, which is becoming more and more popular, has always fascinated directors and filmmakers, who have devoted many works to this game.
The number of players and people having a passion for poker is increasing, and also for this reason we can certainly claim that poker is able to fascinate millions of people. Poker has always fascinated also directors and filmmakers from all over the world, who have dedicated many of their movies to this game and to the dynamics that it creates. Sometimes poker is the main character of the movie, while in other cases it is left in the background, as the setting where the characters of the movie act and where their stories develop.
From Hollywood to Cinecittà, many movies have been set in smoky poker rooms or in sparkling casinos, and many of these movies have gone down in history. An example? “The Sting”, the movie shot by George Roy Hill in 1973 starring two legends of Hollywood like Paul Newman and Robert Redford. In this movie, which won 7 Academy Awards, including best movie, director and screenplay, poker does not have a main role. Nonetheless it is part of one of the best-known scenes of the movie, in which the character played by Paul Newman, Henry Gondorff, plays a poker game on a train and succeeds in making a fool of his rival pretending to be a drunk bookmaker. Going back in time and speaking about the comedy genre, we cannot leave out “Kaleidoscope” (1966), a movie starring Warren Beatty and Susannah Yorke that is not very famous, but those who have a passion for poker will certainly like it. The movie is about a player that succeeds in cheating many casinos in Europe, but he meets the daughter of an inspector of Scotland Yard, and she begins having many suspects.
In most recent times, other movies have been released: in 1998 “Lock&Stock” made its director, Guy Ritchie, famous all over the world. This is a comedy set in the East End of London and it tells the deeds of four friends that have lost a huge amount of money playing poker and have to give the money back to a local gangster boss. In the 90s many other movies with some relationships to the world of poker were released, like Martins Scorseses “Casino”, a movie of 1995 starring Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci, and “Rounders”, a movie shot by John Dahl starring Matt Damon, Edward Norton and John Turturro. In this movie the champion of poker John Chan plays a cammeo, and in one of the most famous scenes of the movie the characters played by Matt Damon plays a game of Texas Holdem.
Among all these American and English productions there are also some Italian movies we can speak about. Italian director Pupi Avati, for example, has shot two films featuring a poker game: “Regalo di Natale” in 1986 and “La rivincita di Natale” in 2003. The latter is the sequel of the first one, which tells the story of four friends that play a game of poker on Christmas Eve.