Holiday Ride

About Holiday Ride

Lower barriers to entry could significantly widen the pool of potential game creators. Curwen sees opportunities not only for established and emerging studios, but for operators, suppliers, entrepreneurs and potentially entirely new entrants.

“The big change is that technology can increasingly provide the infrastructure,” he says. “The creator provides the idea. And I think that will make the industry much more interesting.”

For Yggdrasil, Game in a Box and Studio in a Box are therefore intended to become more than tools for its own development operation. Curwen envisages them supporting a wider creator ecosystem, although he acknowledges that proving the model commercially must come first.

About Holiday Ride

There have been no further details about the lottery prize. The Pennsylvania Lottery only finds out that a winning ticket has been sold after the fact, but the lottery cannot tell whether the person buying the ticket actually realized that they had won.

On the upside, scratch-off tickets rarely go unclaimed, as most people tend to scratch the film very shortly after buying a ticket – instantly, or on the same or following day. 

The Pittsburgh area has been producing big winners one after the next, including a $1-million ticket sold recently, as well as another seven-figure prize sold in Carnegie.

About Holiday Ride

A former Connecticut funeral director who stole clients’ prepayments to fund his excessive gambling habit will spend the next seven and a half years in state prison.

Philip Pietras, 52, admitted to stealing from more than 170 people, many of whom are senior citizens who sought to limit the emotional and financial burdens placed on their loved ones by prepaying for their funerals. But instead of placing those funds, meant for caskets and burial services, in escrow accounts, Pietras pocketed the money to gamble.

Pietras accepted a plea deal from the state, and prosecutors expect him to enter a guilty plea on Oct. 23 and be formally sentenced on Jan. 22, 2027.