英語美文:Olympic Fund Scratchcard Launched

英國國家彩票運營商卡米洛特公司日前決定，將通過發行彩票的方式為2012年倫敦奧運會募集資金，第一種彩票將以刮刮卡的形式出現，其準備工作已經啟動。

Go For Gold, the first scratchcard to raise funds for London"s 2012 Olympic Games, has been launched.

英國《每日郵報》7月27日報道，卡米洛特公司宣佈，一旦總額為6515896英鎊的獎金到位後，超過1100萬張售價為1英鎊的刮刮卡彩票就將上市。彩票的中獎比例為4.93：1，獎級共分為11等，均以現金支付，其中最高獎金為2012英鎊。

還有7年時間，奧運會就將在1948年後重返倫敦。為此，倫敦計劃投資23.75億英鎊用於新建各類場館，同時還將投入15億英鎊作為其運營費用。英國計劃通過發行國家彩票和推出一系列電視節目來為奧運籌集15億英鎊。而刮刮卡和其他形式彩票的'籌資金額預計可達7.5億英鎊。

卡米洛特公司表示，要想完成這一計劃，從2005—06財年和2012—13財年內的彩票銷售額必須超過26.5億英鎊。該公司還計劃在2006年推出一種以抽籤方式決定中獎者的彩票，一種圍繞如2008年北京奧運會等特定場合賽事競猜的一次性彩票，以及一系列刮刮卡和其它互動型即開式彩票。但上述計劃能否付諸實施還有待於英國國家彩票委員會和國際奧委會的批准。

Go For Gold, the first scratchcard to raise funds for London"s 2012 Olympic Games, has been launched.

Players will have a one in 4.93 chance of winning one of 11 cash prizes including the ?2,012 jackpot.

More than 11 million ?1 cards will be on sale when a ?6,515,896 prize fund will be up for grabs, Camelot, the National Lottery operator, said.

It is part of a series of National Lottery games and television shows aimed at raising ?1.5 billion for the Games which begin in exactly seven years.

Scratchcards and games alone are expected to raise ?750 million.

Sales of more than ?2.65 billion will be needed between the financial years 2005/06 and 2012/13 to meet this target, Camelot said.

London plans to spend ?2.375 billion on new facilities and an additional ?1.5 billion on running costs when the world"s biggest sporting event returns to the capital for the first time since 1948.

Camelot also hopes to launch a new draw-based game in 2006, a one-off games-based event around special occasions such as the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and a series of scratchcards and interactive instant win games.

These all depend upon approval by the National Lottery Commission and the International Olympic Committee.

The announcement was made by Olympics Minister and Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, Lord Coe, the London 2012 chairman, and Dianne Thompson, Camelot"s chief executive, in east London where the 2012 Games will be staged, triggering a much-needed regeneration of the area.