Northstar to run Illinois Lottery
Friday September 17th 2010The race has been on for interested parties to bid for a contract to run the Illinois Lottery and over the last few days the lottery world has waited in anticipation to see who would finally emerge as the victor of the 10 year contract. Although Camelot, who currently hold the contract for the UK National Lottery and have done for the last 15 years, had been tipped by some to take over this operation, it has now been announced that Northstar are to run the Illinois Lottery but state legislators will still oversee the operations.
Northstar Lottery Group are primarily made up of three companies that currently hold the contracts for the Illinois Lottery machines. They have pledged to increase the lottery revenue by $4.8 billion within the first half of the five year contract which is more than $1 billion more that the state anticipate they could generate. Given these facts it seems this is a move that the Illinois Lottery will greatly benefit from.
It took the evaluation committee six weeks from the deadline that companies had been given to submit their bids and Intralot were quickly omitted from the running leaving just Camelot and Northstar lottery Group in the fold.
The whole bidding process itself has received much criticism, not only from lottery consultants but also the media and politicians and many called for the process to be restarted. However, the Illinois Lottery evaluation committee stuck with it and as a result, Northstar Lottery Group will now be responsible for supplying technology, instant lotto tickets and games and advertising relating to the Illinois Lottery.