SCRANTON TIMES- LEADER Editorial: …Under the rejected plan, Camelot would have returned $34 billion in profit to the state government over 20 years. That is not much more than the $1 billion-plus in profit that the lottery generates now on about $3.5 billion sales. Camelot had indicated it would generate the extra revenue through attracting more lottery players, partially through the introduction of online gambling.
Whether it’s a good idea to further saturate the state with gambling, given that gambling is addictive, hasn’t even been discussed as a policy matter. But even if that’s the preferred course, the administration hasn’t offered any explanation as to why it must be done without legislative input, by a favored private sole bidder, rather than by the current lottery operation.
If Mr. Corbett believes private management is the best course, he should convince lawmakers rather than trying another end run around them. Instead of using the same flawed process to tweak a rejected contract, he should change the process in favor of transparency and political persuasion… (more)
