Lottery contract dropout GTECH Corp. calls process unfair

HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS / AP: …In its five-page letter, GTECH lists a number of reasons why it decided to drop out.

…Among them were complaints that it would be held accountable for certain events out of its control that might hurt lottery profits, such as if Congress banned state lotteries from conducting Internet games. It objected to accounting methods and what it said was the “recent introduction” of a requirement that the winning bidder would pay $30 million in transaction expenses to the state’s consultants.

…But it also complained that the Corbett administration on Nov. 3 issued a sixth draft of the proposed agreement and permitted no bidder questions after that, giving the two bidders five days to submit a final business plan. GTECH wrote that it had requested 14 days to submit a business plan after a final private management agreement, or PMA, was issued… (more)

EDITOR: There are people who devote their efforts to figuring out how public money can be diverted to private interests..  perhaps in this case much of the $30 million.

The refusal of the Corbett administration to tax Marcellus Shale gas extraction after the Governor received about $2 million in political contribution from interested parties is a case in point.  It reminds us all too painfully of how contracts were awarded for the one sided arrangement between Penn Square Partners and the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority.

We are skeptical about the propriety of the rushed through lottery management award.