Thursday, December 28, 2006
Italians Love Lottery
>
> MILAN, Italy -- Italians have been gambling on the lottery for
> centuries. Before the peninsula even became known as Italy, locals
> were playing some form of sweepstake; 16th-century Genovese, for
> example, bet on which nobles would be drawn for political seats.
>
> Now it's a state-run business worth 5.5 billion euros a year 1, and
> it has just gone online.
>
> Most Italians buy scratch-and-win tickets at the downstairs café,
> picking up the scratchers while getting a cappuccino or pack of
> cigarettes.
>
> The new online system is supposed to save a trip to the café, but it
> has been designed to accommodate notoriously computer-phobic Italians
> -- and now involves two trips to the shops.
>
> Would-be players first sign up and pay at tobacconists, play online,
> then collect their winnings, if any, at post offices.
>
> Italians are notoriously computer shy -- only 31 percent regularly
> use the internet, according to Eurostat.
>
> Though complicated even by Bel Paese standards it's a timely move by
> the national gambling monopoly to hook bettors before a new law opens
> up the online gaming market in 2007.
>
> The Italian media predicts a "British invasion" with the arrival of
> online poker and internet bookmakers, especially heavyweights like
> Ladbrokes and William Hill, whose sites were previously blacked out
> by Italian authorities.
>
> Italians have had a 500-year love affair with the lottery,
> commemorated last year by a stamp portraying luck as a blindfolded
> blonde.
>
> You need some of that luck just to buy a ticket. After about 10
> minutes scrolling around, trying to understand how to enter a credit
> card number and try lady luck, I picked up the phone.
>
> A suave female voice explained that to enter the fast-paced world of
> online gaming, there was a contract and pre-paid card to be obtained
> from select tobacconists.
>
> Though the neighborhood is far from vice-free -- it boasts one of the
> five pharmacies in all Milan to sell over-the-counter vibrators --
> there were none of these gaming establishments in my zip code.
>
> Two tries later, a glittery gold card was mine for 10 euros from a
> tiny place festooned with betting slips and populated by a middle-
> aged man hunched over a video poker machine.
>
> Once home, I didn't bother trying to make sense of the contract but
> spoke with another velvet-voiced signorina who kindly completed the
> sign-up process over the phone and gave me a PIN.
>
> Punters can use cell phones to add credit to the account and place
> bets on sports; they will soon be able to play via cell phone and
> digital terrestrial TV. Winnings can be put on a special lottery
> credit card or, for a fee, picked up in person at the post office
> with three days advance notice.
>
> Way too much work for something meant to be a compulsively fun habit,
> but let the games begin: There are eight online scratch-and-wins to
> chose from, betting starts at just .50 euros, and the pot goes up to
> 500,000 euros.
>
> Online lotto games are a micro-study in national character: The
> British, for example, offer board games like Monopoly or Scrabble,
> Italians wager on penalty kicks and Sette y Mezzo, blackjack's
> continental cousin.
>
> Scratch and wins aren't games of skill, but Final Challenge, the
> Italian lottery soccer game, comes close. Point the cursor to place
> the penalty kick, then see if the goalie saves it. If he misses, the
> money under the soccer ball is yours. Good fun, but the booing of the
> crowd -- it's rarely a stadium cheer and meager winnings -- ceased to
> give that World Cup rush after a few tries.
>
> Total playing time: 14 minutes. Total winnings: 0. More Italian
> online lottery? Fugghedaboutit.
>
>
> 1 Correction, Tue Dec 19 17:32:00 EST 2006
> The Italian state lottery is worth $5.5 billion a year, not $5.5
> million as originally stated. (Return to the corrected text)
