Tattersalls buys Queensland lottery

SYDNEY, Australia – As reported by Bloomberg: "Tattersall's, Australia's second-largest gambling company, will pay 530 million Australian dollars, or US$442 million, for the Queensland government's lottery business, gaining a monopoly in three of the nation's six states.

"The purchase will be funded with debt and is forecast to increase earnings-per-share by at least 0.5 cents in 2008, Tattersall's chief executive officer, Dick McIlwain, said in an interview Monday.

"The right to operate Queensland's lottery, which trades under the Golden Casket brand, will be exclusive to the Melbourne-based Tattersall's until at least 2016.

"Buying Golden Casket increases McIlwain's annual lottery sales to more than 2 billion dollars and gives him about half the national market. As Australia's only private operator, it may give Tattersall's an advantage should the three remaining state-owned lotteries be put up for sale, said one analyst, Greg Fraser.

"…The company's permit to run lotteries in its home state of Victoria expires in July 2008, with Tattersall's bidding for the new license after that date. It also has the monopoly for Tasmania state and self-governing regions of Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory…"