Bids were opened today for the “on-line” or computer operating end of the Arkansas Lottery. Make that bid, singular.

The only bid came from Intralot, the Greek company that has the current contract to do the same work for the South Carolina Lottery. Ernie Passailaigue, director of the Arkansas Lottery, previously headed the South Carolina lottery and several of his top employees have been hired away from there.

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GTECH, a major lottery player based in Providence, R.I., says the process was unfair. The company tok the unprecedented step, for it, of not bidding on the contract. Scientific Games, another major international lottery company, also declined to bid after initially expressing interest.

GTECH said too much emphasis was placed on price and the one-week evaluation period was far too short for the thick notebooks full of information necessary to make an “on-line” lottery proposal.

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A lottery spokesman said Scientific Games sent a letter stating the following, “Based on an assessment of our scheduled or planned online business initiatives over the next ninety days, Scientific Games has made the business decision to allocate its resources to these initiatives and not submit a proposal in response to the online system RFP.”

The specifics of the single bid that was submitted won’t be revealed until after an evaluation to see if it met specifications. Passailaigue said he’d then tell the public what the proposed price will be. He said he wasn’t concerned that only one bid was received and said he was focused on getting a fair deal for Arkansas taxpayers.

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I’d heard  prior to the bid opening that major international lottery players, including GTECH, wouldn’t bid. The issue that irked GTECH could be a factor in another coming major contract for advertising. Apparently four agencies are going to compete for that business — based on questions that have been submitted about the RFP. Advertising could be a $4 million a year piece of work.

 

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