Audit: Fla. lottery sales going flat in recession

Auditors recommend more control of office space, commissions to offset flat Fla. lottery sales

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Florida Lottery sales are going flat, a legislative audit reported Thursday.

Growth in the lottery's annual contributions to education began to slow down in fiscal year 2007-08. Now, officials are reducing their goals for future years.
The audit by the Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability said the lottery is wasting money on excess office space and should review commissions paid to retailers who offer various games. Retailers earn a nickel for every dollar ticket sold and receive an additional 1 percent bonus for redeeming winning tickets.

Auditors said the lottery's operating expenses continue to increase mostly because of growth in its commission payments. The lottery paid $121 million to vendors for advertising and providing the online and scratch-off games in this fiscal year alone.
Auditors recommended the department expand its retailer network to increase sales, propose using vending machines for online ticket sales, secure competitive advertising and reduce commissions paid for higher-value scratch off tickets.
Lottery Secretary Leo DiBenigno said that the economy was not the only reason for the slowdown, and that he plans to ask the Legislature to approve some of the recommendations in the audit to help enhance sales, including instant ticket vending machines.
"There would be additional revenue available if we were able to use those tools," he said.

Lawmakers were concerned as well.

"People that were hoping gambling would pay for education, it's just not working out that way," said Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, after hearing about the lottery's woes at a morning education appropriations committee meeting.
The audit noted that the lottery has introduced new scratch off games, midday drawings and the multistate game, Powerball, in January in hopes of boosting sales in a sluggish economy. Powerball sales totaled $50 million in its first month, but sales decreased in several other existing games.
Florida was previously the only state that did not participate in any multistate games.
Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment in 1986 authorizing the state to operate a lottery with profits aimed at enhancing education.


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Discipline and Market Psychology

Discipline is required to birth habits and routines. What you do routinely, you perfect. A typical example is learning to walk. When you first began to walk you never imagined running but today to do. Right? Now, you do marathon, sprints and now you even want to believe that you are Usain Bolt. Wow! Have you noticed it wasn't like that at the beginning? You staggered, you fell many times but you got up. You kept on practicing how to walk. Today you have mastered your act of walking.

The same is true of forex trading. Currency trading demands that you have a plan. Focus and discipline of purpose could help you to co-ordinate your trading successes. You can't have it any other way. You discipline of purpose is important to your trading success. Actors and actresses train to master the simple things. Doctors learn too to master the simple things. Have you every asked yourself why? At first, it might seem monotonous but doing the same thing over and over again birth consistency and help to build confidence. Somewhere in the midst of that confidence, your genius will emerge. When I first began I felt the boredom of sameness exhaustive. Today it makes my trading far easier to understand.

You build discipline to help you go through times you may not feel like trading. You build discipline to help you identify moments of great opportunities especially when market ranges. In these difficult times winning become far-fetched in forex trading. But if you have a discipline in place you can still make handsome gains. If you never studied the market consistently those moments of opportunities would pass you by as they came. In fact, your ability to recognize those times is what changes your life for the best.
Trading forex profitably is not so much about what you do when its good times for everyone. But what you did to win when most traders could barely make gains is what sets you apart. It doesn't take Einstein to win consistently, but it takes a disciplined approach to trading. I have had many of those inspirational trading moments and the rewards were magnificent. You have to identify them to be able to trade and capture them. It is an impossible attempt if you have not been trained for it. This is why many lose in the market place. You could avoid becoming part of those statistics by doing things the right way.

Finally, to make any significant amount of money from your currency trading, your focus should never be on money even though that's your ultimate goal. But this should be canceled immediately. Zero your focus on becoming an excellent trader. If you could succeed in making that your priority, money would chase after you in abundance. To lead a life of independent you must first learn to think independence and freedom within you. Only when you see that image within, re-lived it over and over again could your reality manifest. To be an excellent currency trader you must first be one within. At this time when employment, job and long term investments seemed to be dwindling fast, learning to trade currency from the comfort of your own home seem a viable way of raising your income level. Don't be crushed by the punches of the economic crunch. You could still rise above the waters of these present times. Have a great day of trading.


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Mid-Day Report: Dollar Retreats Further but Near Term Support Still Intact

Dollar weakens against most major currencies in early US session but the weakness is so far limited well above key near term support levels against Euro, Swissy and Aussie. Otherwise, the markets are lacking a clear direction ahead of key event risks later this week. Stocks are mostly flat while commodities are also bounded in tight range. The economic calendar is rather light today with US pending home sales only, which unexpectedly rose 6.3% to 87.7 in Dec, first rise in four months. Fed said it will extend the emergency lending programs and foreign currency swap lines by Six months through Oct 30 as there are still "continuing substantial strains in many financial markets."

Germany retail sales unexpectedly declined by 0.2% mom (consensus: +0.5%) in December while November's reading was also revised down to a fall of 0.1%. On yearly basis, the gauge dropped 0.3% following the revised 3.2% fall in the previous month. Eurozone's PPI contracted 1.3% mom in December, worse than consensus of 1.1% but better than the revised 2% drop in November, as falling energy and food prices caused great disinflation in the 16-country region. Although ECB said explicitly that interest rate will remain unchanged in February, we believe aa big cut will be seen in March. On annual basis, PPI rose 1.8% in December, slower than 2.1% as market anticipated and 3.3% in the previous month. In Switzerland, trade surplus in December narrowed to CHF 220M from a revised CHF 2250M in the previous month as exports dropped severely by 13%.
On the other hand, UK's construction PMI showed some upside surprise as January's reading rose to 34.5 from 29.3 a month ago. Despite the improvement, it's the 11th month that the index came in below 50, indicating contraction in the sector.
In Asian session, the RBA lowered interest rate by another 100 bps to 3.25%, the lowest level since 1964 as "'there was a significant deterioration in world economic conditions late in 2008". The central bank has reduced its policy rate by 400 bps since September 2008. The Australian government also announced it will roll out an AUD 42B stimulus plan over this and the next 3 fiscal year so as to prevent the country from falling into recession. The package includes AUD 12.7B in grants from next month to families and low-income earners and AUD 28.8B on infrastructure. The plan will, however, send Australia's budget into an AUD 22.5B deficit, the first shortfall since fiscal 2001-02. RBA believes that "the combination of expansionary monetary and fiscal policies now in place will help to cushion the Australian economy from the contractionary forces coming from abroad." Also released from Australia, trade surplus narrowed to AUD 589M in December, worse than market expectation of AUD 1050M and the revised AUD 979M in November, as cola and metal exports declined.
BoJ said it will buy 1 trillion yen of shares held by financial companies. BoJ will buy equities through Apr 2010 to boost capital of financial institutions.

USD/CHF Mid-Day Outlook
Daily Pivots: (S1) 1.1565; (P) 1.1624; (R1) 1.1672;
USD/CHF failed 1.1714 resistance and retreats sharply since then. With 1.1515 minor support broken, intraday bias is turned neutral. Though, as long as 1.1313 support holds, rise from 1.0366 is still in favor to resume. Above 1.1714 will target a retest of 1.2248/96 resistance zone. However, note that further break of 1.1313 support will confirm that rebound from 1.0366 has completed and will bring deeper decline towards 1.0864 cluster support.

In the bigger picture, current favored interpretation is that medium term rise from 0.9634 has topped at 1.2248 orthodox top rather than 1.2296. In other words, three wave structure of the fall from 1.2258 to 1.0366 argues that it's merely a correction in the medium term up trend. Rise from 1.0366 should now extend to retest 1.2248/2296. Nevertheless, decisive break of the resistance zone is needed to confirm resumption of medium term rise from 0.9634. Otherwise, some large scale consolidation could be seen, with risk of another test of 1.0366 before up trend resumption. Below 1.0864 will bring another down leg of the consolidation to 1.0366 and below.


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Tax Credit Assistance Program

Program Description
The Tax Credit Assistance Program (TCAP) provides grant funding for capital investment in Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) projects via a formula-based allocation to State housing credit allocation agencies. The housing credit agencies in each State shall distribute these funds competitively and according to their qualified allocation plan. Projects awarded low income housing tax credits in fiscal years 2007, 2008, or 2009 are eligible for funding but housing credit agencies must give priority to projects that are expected to be completed by February 2012. 75 percent of TCAP funds will be committed by February 2010, 75 percent must be expended by February 2011, and 100 percent of the funds must be expended by February 2012.

Process for Making Awards
TCAP program and applicable federal crosscutting requirements will be established by notice and posted on HUD's Recovery Act website. The applicant must submit to HUD a 'letter of intent' to participate within 15 days of the notice of funding availability appearing in the Federal Register and must submit a description of how it plans to award the TCAP funds competitively, based on its qualified allocation plan (QAP), within 45 days of the notice."
Eligible Applicants
The 52 State Housing Credit Agencies that administer the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program are the only eligible applicants. (The 50 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico). No other organization, entities, or individuals are eligible for funding. Funding is by formula allocation to the 52 eligible state agencies.

Funding Amounts
Total Funding: $2,250,000,000
Total Funds Allocated: $2,250,000,000
Total Funds Obligated: $0
Total Funds Expended: $0



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Please note that we try to process the withdrawal request quickly. However, it may take up to 5 business days, depending on the method of transfer.

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