If you are the average fan of lottery in Australia and if you do not really care too much about the intricacies of the industry and news from the industry, then you might have even missed the name Tattersall’s. However, if you know at least something about how lotteries in Australia work and how it is all organized, then this is not the name that will be new to you. Namely, these days, pretty much all the lotteries in Australia are run by this company which has been around for more than a century and which has only grown in all this time.
The company was started, or at least its roots can be traced back to the year 1881, when a man called George Adams who came from England and worked in a number of positions over the years, started taking bets on horse races in Sydney. This could be seen as the beginning of a company that will make its fortunes in gambling. The year when the company started getting involved in some serious lottery was 1895, when Mr. Adams moved the company to Hobart. It became the base of the operations which later spread throughout the country.
It would take tomes to try and describe all the events that took place over the years, especially when we get to the modern times when lotteries spread like bush fires across the continent and when more and more games garnered popularity. However, it is safe to say that the outcome in all of these cases somehow ended with Tattersall’s buying out the competition and taking over games, as well as the companies that organized them originally.
Instead of trying to explain and cover all these takeovers and smart business moves in the Tattersall’s history, it is enough to take a look at all the Australian national lottery games that are organized by this company. You will find some of the biggest names here, such as Oz Lotto, Saturday Lotto, Powerball, The Pools as well as Super 66. Of course, this is nowhere near everything that is offered by Tattersall’s, with games like Wednesday Lotto, Tatts Keno, Casket and a number of other non-national lotteries being organized by this company.
It also needs to be added that Tattersall’s has other business ventures as well, such as sports and racing wagering, gaming machines, AFL football tipping and so on, making it the biggest essentially gambling company in the country.
Of course, due to the nature of the business and everything that goes along with it, certain controversies also became associated with the company, with gambling becoming a widespread problem in certain states. In addition to this, there are certain practices being employed by the company that certain groups and organizations find doubtful and something that warrants investigation.
In the end, it is safe to say that Tattersall’s owns the lottery in Australia and there is no end in sight. And indeed, who is to say that the situation would be worse or better if things were different.
