Lottery Games

ANNAPOLIS -- Tired of waiting hours or days to find out if you lottery numbers have won?Maryland lottery officials are drawing up plans for a new game that would let you know within a matter of minutes whether you won, provided you were not averse to spending some time in a bar.Details were sketchy yesterday, but sources familiar with the plan said the game would work like this:Players would obtain their numbers and then wait for the winners to appear periodically...

Imagine plopping down in front of a video screen at your favorite bar, with a beer and a stack of quarters at the ready.While the quarters last, you play video poker, keno or blackjack. If you win, you walk away happy -- and richer. If you lose, at least you've done a small part to help solve Maryland's budget problems.The games are called video lotteries and they are the latest rage in the growing world of state-sponsored gambling.In the imagination of some legislators, those quarters over the course of a year add up to big money -- enough to help the state emerge from its budgetary morass.

LOS ANGELES -- Foreigners wanting to live in this country inundated the government with nearly 19 million applications for 40,000 slots in an immigration lottery held last month, nearly four times the number expected, according to figures released this week.Now the applicants are being taken by surprise by a government decision to issue notifications to 50,000 people that they were winners and then let the first-round winners scramble for the 40,000 visas.Mike Brennan, a spokesman for the State Department, said the extra notifications were aimed at covering any possible dropouts and urged the recipients to hurry.

With the same kinds of demographic and consumer information used by sellers of fast food and yuppie clothing, GTECH will assess Maryland's lottery participation -- ZIP code by ZIP code.Guy B. Snowden, co-chairman of GTECH, says the state's lottery business can grow without saturating the inner city of Baltimore, where many assume the lottery is played most heavily.GTECH says lotteries are played most actively by the middle class and lower middle class.Mr. Snowden said his company might eventually recommend expanding the number of terminals in Maryland beyond the 2,400 called for in its current contract.

On the surface, the stunningly low bid on the Maryland Lottery Agency's lucrative computer contract represents a good deal for the state. But surface appearances can be deceiving. State officials should keep in mind the age-old principle of commerce: Caveat emptor ("Let the buyer beware").The yawning gap of more than $20 million between the low bidder, GTECH of Providence, R.I., and Control Data Corp of Minneapolis raises the immediate concern that this may have been a "low-ball" bid by the winner, which will inevitably lead to add-ons, change orders and "unanticipated overruns."

ANNAPOLIS -- After a fierce and highly political bidding war between national computer giants, a Rhode Island firm apparently has won preliminary approval to supply new computers for Maryland's lottery -- underbidding the current contract holder by a surprising $20 million.GTECH of Providence, R.I., outdueled Control Data Corp. of Minneapolis, which has held the contract for the last nine years. GTECH's bid of $60.06 million was far below the $81.45 million quoted by Control Data.The fight for Maryland's business was the latest skirmish in a high-cost, state-by-state contest for supremacy in the lottery computer business.