Conference rusure::nintendo

668.0. "Now place your lottery bets via Nintendo in Minn." by MPO::WHITTALL (Only lefties are in their right mind) Fri Sep 27 1991 11:32

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Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Sept. 27,1991

		Nintendo adds Zap! to Minn. lottery

	ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Minnesota, one of the last states to set
	up a lottery, plans to become the first to let people play at
	home using equipment from a popular video game.

	Despite criticism from a few state legislators, Lottery Director
	George Andersen said an experiment has been arranged for about
	10,000 people.

	Lottery players will use the control deck from a Nintendo video
	game and a Minnesota State Lottery cartridge to hook up to the
	lottery's computer system.  A connection by telephone lines would
	also be part of the system.

	Participants would have to deposit up to $200 in advance and no
	credit would be extended.  Any winnings would be credited to 
	their account, but prizes of $1,000 or more would have to be 
	claimed through a lottery office.  There would be a $50 daily
	limit for at-home players.

	"This is a whole new exciting level of user of a piece of equip-
	ment already owned by a large number of people," Andersen said.

	Control Data Corp., the lottery system's vendor, developed the
	software for the six-month test, to begin in June or July.

	There are 3,875 retail lottery outlets in the state, and the new
	system is "never, ever going to replace the retailer system,"
 	Andersen said.

	About 500 people have volunteered to sign up since the idea won
	the approval of the lottery's board of directors a few weeks ago,
	Andersen said.

	Minnesotans own nearly 600,000 Nintendo units. About a third of
	the households have a least one, and half the owners are adults.

	Andersen said the system has been designed to ensure that minors
	do not play the lottery.  It's illegal for minors to purchase
	lottery tickets.

    To me, it seems that if you use the NES to play, and you happen to get
    a winning ticket, you should get a larger pot than someone that uses a
    retailer to get a ticket.  The reason for this logic...Most states pay
    a prize to the retailer who sells the winning ticket (this is usually a
    percentage of the prize that the ticket won).  Therefore, if you used a
    NES to buy the ticket, no one (read: the state lottery) would get this
    percentage that is normally paid out.  Maybe the lottery will put this
    extra money back into the lottery, or to good use (Then again, maybe
    pigs will learn to fly).

    If anyone out there lives in Minnesota, I'd like for them to call the
    lottery office about this and see what they say.

    Later...
        Mike