Officials charged with starting a lottery in North Carolina said yesterday that they hope to award two major contracts by Feb. 2, despite a lawsuit intended to stop them.
The officials also said they will soon contract with the state's Alcohol Law Enforcement Division to provide agents to screen lottery retailers.
"We're developing momentum in getting this going," said Charles Sanders, the former Glaxo chairman who heads the N.C. Lottery Commission.
Officials have set April 5 as the target date to start a scratch-off lottery game.
But in a lawsuit that challenges the way that legislators adopted the lottery, lawyers have asked a judge to issue an injunction to stop the games from proceeding.
Tom Shaheen, the lottery's executive director, said that officials expect to receive bids for two major contracts — printing scratch-off tickets and running online games — by Friday.
"They get in Jan. 13, and we want to award these, I believe, by Feb. 2," Shaheen said. "It's very tight."
Two committees will review the bids under close security, and Shaheen will then decide which companies to recommend to the commission.
At least two companies, Oberthur Gaming Technologies and Scientific Games Corp., have said they intend to bid for the instant-ticket contract. Scientific Games and G-TECH have indicated that they intend to bid for the online game contract.
Shaheen said he also hopes to issue a request for proposals from advertising agencies by Wednesday. The contract would involve creative production, advertising purchasing and designing promotional materials to be displayed at stores.
"Basically, we're looking for a full-service advertising agency," he said. "We have tried to incorporate every type of advertising service that we need."
Sanders said that the attorney general's office is also reviewing a two-year contract for the Alcohol Law Enforcement Division to provide 12 agents and three clerical workers to conduct background and security checks on retailers who want to sell lottery tickets.
Although ALE officials estimated that it might take as many as 29 agents to police the lottery statewide, Sanders said that the commission wouldn't need that many agents initially.
"We may go higher — we're just not sure. We don't want to start out with higher than we need," he said.
The commission could hire more agents as the number of retailers grows, Sanders said, and their jobs could later include investigating any reports of potential fraud involving the lottery.
Shaheen said he hopes to award the major contracts, begin building a network of several thousand store outlets and set up regional offices where lottery winners must claim any prizes of $600 or more.
If the regional offices aren't in place by April 5, it's possible that all the initial prizes will have to be claimed at Raleigh headquarters, he said.
Shaheen said that officials have no contingency plans if a judge issues an injunction. But Lottery Commissioner Robert Farris Jr. of Wilson said he is confident that the attorney general's office will defend the lottery. "Either way, I'm sure we're in fine hands," he said.
Forgive me for being so ignorant on this subject but what does "online games mean"? I know you can buy powrball tickets online in some states but the definition is unclear to me.
And also who are the companies that do RNG. Is is Scientific Games?
I don't care what they pick as long as they don't pick Oberthur. The tickets they make are impossible to scratch. In fact you don't scratch Oberthur tickets, you dig into them.
Wondering why there is a link to North Dakota's website in this thread?Why not link to NC's website instead!
Thanks for catching that -- a case of "webmaster error"! I must have been trying to post the story too quickly. There's about a dozen different things I have to do to post each news story, so occasionally (hopefully not too often) I choose the wrong option. I'll go ahead and fix it, sorry for the error.
Thanks Todd.I just didn't want anyone to get confused by clicking that link and wondering how they got to N.Dakota's website.I'm sure you have plenty to do,and I for one appreciate these stories.Keep up the good work.
I don't care what they pick as long as they don't pick Oberthur. The tickets they make are impossible to scratch. In fact you don't scratch Oberthur tickets, you dig into them.
NY had a defect with the original Instant Take Five tickets. They were briefly withdrawn.
And also who are the companies that do RNG. Is is Scientific Games?
Online games are games that you pick your own numbers, and a ticket machine spits out a ticket. It does not refer to Internet-based games.
Online games are games that you pick your own numbers, and a ticket machine spits out a ticket. It does not refer to Internet-based games.
I don't care what they pick as long as they don't pick Oberthur. The tickets they make are impossible to scratch. In fact you don't scratch Oberthur tickets, you dig into them.
Wondering why there is a link to North Dakota's website in this thread?Why not link to NC's website instead!
Wondering why there is a link to North Dakota's website in this thread?Why not link to NC's website instead!
Thanks for catching that -- a case of "webmaster error"! I must have been trying to post the story too quickly. There's about a dozen different things I have to do to post each news story, so occasionally (hopefully not too often) I choose the wrong option. I'll go ahead and fix it, sorry for the error.
Thanks Todd.I just didn't want anyone to get confused by clicking that link and wondering how they got to N.Dakota's website.I'm sure you have plenty to do,and I for one appreciate these stories.Keep up the good work.
I don't care what they pick as long as they don't pick Oberthur. The tickets they make are impossible to scratch. In fact you don't scratch Oberthur tickets, you dig into them.
NY had a defect with the original Instant Take Five tickets. They were briefly withdrawn.
Hurry up, NC !!
I was driving around the Charlotte area today and wanted to get some powerball tix for tonite, so I had to double back to SC to get them.
Hurry up, NC !!
Hurry up, NC !!
I was driving around the Charlotte area today and wanted to get some powerball tix for tonite, so I had to double back to SC to get them.
Hurry up, NC !!
NC hasn't even started its lottery, so how could it be selling PB tickets?