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Will Georgia Stage America’s First Online Lottery?

America’s first online lottery could be just a matter of time

Friday 5th March 2004

The state of Georgia is flirting with the idea of an online lottery, it was revealed this week. State officials are looking at a way to boost revenue in an attempt to avoid cutting lottery funded scholarships and valuable pre-kindergarten programmes, and they feel that taking the lottery online would help it reach a much wider customer-base.

‘We’re trying to target a market that may not be part of the lottery now — techies, or professional people tied to computers all day,’ explains State Rep. Terry Barnard.

Barnard hopes to receive approval for his proposal to create a Web site called the ‘‘Georgia Peach Account,’ where people could play up to $5 a day on debit cards or credit cards. Currently lottery sales in Georgia are strictly cash-only. However, some officials are sceptical about the future of online lotteries and where they stand with respect to sketchy Federal gaming laws. ‘‘There is some uncertainty about whether it’s legal,’’ said lottery spokesman J.B. Landroche. ‘‘It really is premature what impact it would have, whether it would increase our revenues.’




Source: OnlineCasinoNews