All of you Lottery addicts out there no longer need to step outside the office to buy a ticket. Instead go to http://www.interlotto.li, register yourself, choose six numbers from one to 40, send your Mastercard credit card details to Netscape Communications Corp’s encrypted server and you’ve entered InterLotto – the lottery on the Internet. The first draw, which is guaranteed to pay out $1m, will be announced on October 7. The minumum number of tickets that can be purchased is two for $8.5 which means that around 20,000 people will have to play in order for it to break even. The Web site is located in Liechtenstein on the borders of Switzerland and Austria as this is the only country that does not have its own national lottery and therefore is able to grant a gambling licence. However, this is bad news for the Swiss who won’t be able to join in the fun due to some arcane law that forbids access from Swiss servers. Interlotto is funded by the Liechtenstein government and calls itself a charitable foundation – 65% of funds from each draw will be distributed in prize money each week. A minumum of 5% of funds each week will go to a charity that is decided by participants.
