All posts tagged "Lotteries"

A Massachusetts woman won big for a second time on a lottery ticket. But this time, her prize was even bigger. Desiree Fortini-Craft of Hyde Park won a scratch-off game’sthird grand prize of $25 million, according to a Massachusetts State Lottery news release. Fortini-Craft won on the Massachusetts State Lottery’s “Billion Dollar Extravaganza,” a $50 instant game. When she saw she won the grand prize, she hid her ticket and went on vacation, according to the lottery. “She said that she had scratched her winning ticket a few weeks ago and stored it in a secure place before going on a trip to Ar......

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The states that have legalized sports betting are reporting record levels of wagering and revenues, but with that growth comes questions about gambling addiction and whether regulators and sportsbooks are doing enough to fight it. Two dozen states have active online sports betting, and other states are on the verge of joining them. As legalized gambling spreads, state legislatures, regulatory agencies, addiction experts, sportsbook operators and sports leagues all say they are working to address gambling addiction. Jim Whelan, a psychology professor who runs the Institute fo......

As liquor connoisseurs’ quest for certain high-end bourbons becomes a blood sport, the 17 states that control their own liquor stores have adopted more and more complex methods to stop obsessed seekers from gaming the system by stalking delivery trucks and reselling sought-after bottles on the black market. Over the past decade, bourbon, once known as the drink for the common man, has acquired the cachet of high-end scotches. Bottles that used to sell for under $50 can now fetch several times that amount, especially on the secondary market — stretching the resources and imagination of state li......

It’s a mega win. One Illinois ticket holder has won a whopping $1.337 billion after all of their numbers matched the latest drawing in the billion-dollar Summer Splendor-Mega Millions jackpot. The $1.337 billion figure is based on a 29-year installment plan. Most people opt for the cash option, which is this case is a staggering $780.5 million. The winning ticket matched the white balls from Friday’s drawing: 13, 36, 45, 57 and 67 as well as the gold Mega Ball 14. The jackpot is the second-largest since the game debuted two decades ago. The largest was a $1.537 billion pot in 2018. That ticket......

Bitcoin dropped to a three-month low recently and its movement has closely mirrored financial markets in its decline. Bitcoin bulls often describe it as an asset that is uncorrelated to traditional financial markets, CNBC reported, however experts have noticed growing parallels in the price movements of bitcoin and stocks. It also comes as Dogecoin co-founder Jackson Palmer wrote a lengthy Twitter essay about cryptocurrency preying on the most vulnerable. "These days even the most modest critique of cryptocurrency will draw smears from the powerful figures in control of the industry," he wrote......

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The COVID-19 vaccination rate is lower among California state workers than among the state's general population, according to data from the state Human Resources Department. Fewer than two-thirds of state workers — about 62% — were vaccinated as of Oct. 7, according to preliminary figures provided by department spokeswoman Camille Travis. That compares to a rate of about 72% among all Californians, according to state data. The employee data is incomplete, accounting for about 213,000 of the state's 238,000 employees, Travis said. But the relatively low rate identified so f......