524,000 apply for Jackson memorial tickets

July 4, 2009

LOS ANGELES - More than half a million fans from around the world applied for 17,500 free tickets to Michael Jackson's public memorial service next week, organizers said on Friday as a massive security operation got underway.

The life and music of the self-proclaimed "king of pop," who died of sudden cardiac arrest last Thursday, will be celebrated on Tuesday at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles.

Officials on Friday unveiled an online lottery that will allow fans to attend either the televised service at the arena or watch the proceedings on a big screen at the nearby Nokia Theater.

But within minutes, the staplescenter.com server crashed. More than 524,000 applications had been received by 5:30 p.m. on Friday.

A wide area around the venues in downtown Los Angeles will be blocked off for the event. Both local and state law-enforcement agencies have been marshaled for duty.

The ceremony will also streamed online.

"You might want to consider watching this from the comfort of your own home," said Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jan Perry, who is doubling as the city's acting mayor.

A Jackson family spokesman declined to provide details of the memorial service, but said there would not be a funeral procession and Jackson's body would not be at the memorial.

Los Angeles city officials are preparing for massive crowds downturn during the event.

Sealed-off streets
A local news-radio station reported that more than 1,400 officers from the Los Angeles Police Department alone have been asked to volunteer for duty on Monday and Tuesday. The LAPD, which has about 9,000 officers in total, declined to comment on the report or to reveal a staffing number.

Assistant Police Chief Earl Paysinger says anywhere from a quarter-million to 700,000 people may try to reach the arena, even though a wide area around Staples Center will be sealed off to those without tickets.

But public safety officials appeared to assume their requests to stay home would have little effect. Since Jackson's death, fans have flocked to Jackson sites from Los Angeles to his Neverland Ranch in rural Santa Barbara County.

Tim Leiweke, CEO of AEG Live, announced Friday that 17,500 tickets will be made available to fans via a Web lottery to attend the service. Eleven-thousand tickets will be issued for the Staples Center and an additional 6,500 will offer seats to watch a live simulcast at the nearby Nokia Theater.

Registration began at 10 a.m. PT on Friday and will continue until 6 p.m. PT on Saturday.

A computer program will randomly select 8,750 names to receive two tickets for one venue or the other, Leiweke said. Those selected to receive tickets will be notified between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. Sunday. They will be given a code to use at the Ticketmaster.com Web site, which will give them further instructions on where to go Monday morning to get the tickets and wristbands enabling them to enter the venues, Leiweke said.

Meanwhile, Jackson’s brother Jermaine told CNN’s Larry King that there will be a private ceremony for family and some special guests before the public memorial.

Access Hollywood confirmed Friday that the private funeral will be held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles. 

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Source: msnbc.com news services

Ohio Lottery facts and trivia as it turns 35 years old

June 14, 2009

Thirty-five years ago this summer, the newly created Ohio Lottery held its first-ever drawing, a public spectacle at Parmatown Mall that drew more than 1,000 people.

Comedian Don Rickles had originally been invited to emcee the drawing of the new Buckeye 300 weekly game, but the public had to settle for Miss Ohio World 1974 and local TV stars Big Chuck and Hoolihan.

Since then, the Ohio Lottery has turned hundreds of people into millionaires and transferred about $16 billion to Ohio's public schools -- $672.2 million alone during fiscal 2008.

Here are some interesting facts, figures and trivia as the lottery heads into middle age:

Pick 4 trends

From Jan. 1, 2000 to May 5, 2009, the most often drawn Pick 4 combination was 5-8-4-2, which was selected six times.

The numbers 2-0-2-8, 4-5-7-0 and 5-0-4-4 have come up five times each.

More than half of the 10,000 Pick 4 combinations -- 5,433 to be exact (as of May 5, 2009) -- have not been selected at all since Jan. 1, 2000. Another 3,366 combinations have hit only once.

Pick 3 trends

From Jan. 1, 2000 to May 5, 2009, the most often drawn Pick 3 combination was 6-1-0, which hit 20 times! (The next closest numbers, 4-1-8 and 8-9-2, hit 15 times each.)

Fifteen three-number combos hit only once.

The coldest Pick 3 number -- or perhaps the most overdue -- is 0-9-0, which has not been selected at all since Jan. 1, 2000.

Mega Millions trends

Since the Mega Millions went to 56 regular balls and 46 gold balls on June 24, 2005, here are the hottest numbers (through the June 9, 2009, drawing):

14 (picked 48 times)

36 (48 times)

48 (47 times)

46 (47 times)

5 (46 times)

53 (46 times)

Hottest gold balls: 7, 35 and 36, each picked 14 times.

And the coldest numbers . . .

47 (picked 23 times)

6 (picked 25 times)

49 (picked 26 times)

37 (picked 29 times)

23 (picked 30 times)

11 (picked 30 times)

Coldest gold ball: 23, picked just four times.

Where does a dollar spent on the lottery go?

60 cents -- prizes

29 cents -- education

6 cents -- retailers

5 cents -- lottery operations

(fiscal 2008)

Where are we spending our lottery dollars?

58.7 percent -- instant games

16.7 percent -- Pick 3

8.6 percent -- Mega Millions

8.6 percent -- Pick 4

3.0 percent -- Rolling Cash 5

1.8 percent -- Classic Lotto

2.6 percent -- other games (Kicker, EZ Play, Ten-OH, etc.)

Total Ohio Lottery ticket sales

2008 -- $2.325 billion

2007 -- $2.259 billion

2006 -- $2.220 billion

2005 -- $2.159 billion

2004 -- $2.155 billion

In Ohio, per-capita spending on the lottery was $197 in 2007. In Massachusetts, home of the most popular state lottery in terms of per-person spending, the average person wagered $689 on the lottery in 2007.

One of the reasons for its popularity might be that Massachusetts is one of the most generous states when it comes to using revenue for prize money. While Ohio paid back about 59 cents in prizes for every dollar of sales in 2007, Massachusetts paid back about 73 cents for every dollar.

8,005 -- Number of Ohio Lottery retailers in fiscal 2008.

9,331 -- Number of Ohio Lottery retailers in fiscal 1999.

While that might seem like a lot, consider this: Of the $323.2 million in total state funding the Cleveland School District received, about $34 million, or about 10.5 percent, came from lottery funds. When you weigh that against the district's total funding, including local and federal taxes, the amount received from the lottery is less than a nickel per dollar of funding.

In fiscal 2008, the average public school student in Ohio received $373 in funding from the lottery.

The hunt for bigger prizes?

In the last 10 years, sales in the . . .

Pick 3 game have dropped 3.1 percent

Pick 4 game have increased 58.9 percent

Do the poor play more?

According to a 2008 study, lottery sales in Ohio's poorer neighborhoods (median household income under $38,000) were twice as high as lottery sales in neighborhoods with household incomes above $60,600.

According to a nationwide study from 1999, high school dropouts spent an average of $334 a year on lottery tickets while college grads spent less than $90 a year.

Just a coincidence?

Just moments after No. 1 Ohio State beat No. 2 Michigan 42-39 in a classic football showdown on November 18, 2006, the lottery machines selected 4-2-3-9 as the winning Pick 4 number.

A few weeks later, after Ohio State fell to Florida 41-14 in the national championship, lottery players, hoping for a repeat, bet the number 4-1-1-4 so much the lottery had to halt wagering on the number.

The Pick 4 combo selected after that game? 9-1-0-4.

Our fair share?

Since Ohio joined the Mega Millions game in 2002, 99 jackpots have been awarded in the twelve states that participate. Fourteen of those jackpots -- or shares of them -- have been won in Ohio.

Sources: Plain Dealer research, Ohio Lottery Commission, Ohio Department of Education, New York Times, the Buckeye Institute, Columbus Dispatch, Associated Press

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Source: Jay Laprete/Associated Press

Report: Wealthy counties get most lottery proceeds

Lottery players spent more than $800 million last year, but the Hoosier Lottery returns just 61 percent of sales as prizes, the newspaper said. That's much less than other forms of legal gambling, such as slot machines, which have a return of about 90 percent.

And while owners of more expensive cars, boats and RVs benefit most from the state's auto excise formula, it's primarily the poor who are subsidizing them through lottery ticket sales, the newspaper said.

Experts widely agree that the poor play the lottery in disproportionate numbers, the Star reported, and a marketing survey for the Hoosier Lottery in 2005 concluded that 67 percent of lottery players have household incomes of less than $50,000, compared with 58 percent of the general population.

Hoosier Lottery Executive Director Kathryn Densborn said the lottery doesn't deliberately market to the poor. "I do not target any demographic with our advertising or anything we do," she said. She said her marketing surveys sort people primarily by attitudes such as "casino enthusiast," "jackpot hopeful" and "thrill-seeking men."

But state Sen. Michael Young, R-Indianapolis, a lottery critic, was skeptical.

"They know what they're doing. They're not going after millionaires. I bet they don't run ads in Forbes magazine," he said.


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Source: Chicago Tribune, www.chicagotribune.com