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Indiana Bell wins big with Hoosier lottery
When Indiana first jumped on the state lottery bandwagon by introducing scratch-off lottery cards in 1989, no one at Indiana Bell was allowed to play. Overzealous legislators, in their effort to provide the Hoosier State with an above-board lottery, had inadvertently prohibited employees of all vendors-including the telephone company-from participating in the lottery. The situation was eventually remedied during the 1990 session of the Indiana legislature.
By the time Indiana introduced its on-line games in 1990 in the middle of its second phase of lottery fever, Indiana Bell was a major player-and a big winner. The company's most successful win during its 70-year existence occurred when Indiana Bell was chosen to oversee the fastest installation of a statewide network in American lottery history. It's a Winner! From the beginning, the lottery's scratch-off games were a huge success, pulling a weekly average of $11 million in revenues into state coffers. Not surprisingly, the State Lottery Commission of Indiana was eager to move onto the second phase of the games-on-line Lotto. For $1, Lotto players could choose six numbers between 1 and 44 for a chance to be the winner of the cumulative weekly $1-million jackpot.
The Lottery Commission set stringent deadlines when it began the bidding process for the on-line games because it expected the games to bring in significant additional revenues for the state. On Nov. 14, 1989, the commission opened the multimillion-dollar project by offering requests for proposals to the five vendors of lottery systems worldwide.
Three of the vendors responded to the call for proposals and began to seriously explore the telecommunications aspects of the lottery network. Indiana Bell, GTE, AT&T, MCI and other telecom carriers began working with each of the bidders to develop possible network solutions and answer questions about service options, costs and implementation plans.
Indiana Bell was very interested in coordinating the project and serving as the chosen vendor's intermediary for all of the project's telecommunications aspects. To underscore its commitment, the company's lottery team provided detailed information on how Indiana Bell would work with more than 30 other telcos operating within the state.
Indiana Bell also offered each of the three lottery vendors a menu of services the company could provide, including tariff services and contracted project-specific services, which included multiplexing capabilities and project management.
Source: BonusGambler.com Editors' Choice
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