HALLOWELL – Maine State Lottery games continue as usual while state officials decide what to do about contracting for future online gaming.

A six-year contract awarded a year ago to low bidder Intralot of Athens, Greece was invalidated after Scientific Games of Alpharetta, Ga. — the current contract holder — appealed the state’s award, saying it was based on a flawed scoring mechanism. The ruling was upheld last week in Superior Court.

Intralot spokesman Byron Boothe said Friday that the firm, which could have appealed the ruling to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, “will not pursue this issue any further.”

Scientific Games, which has 22 employees in offices in Gardiner and has held the contract for about a dozen years, will now provide online game services and scratch-ticket printing until June 30, 2012. What happens after that is being examined by Timothy Poulin, acting director of the state Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages and Lottery Operations, who must decide how to move forward.

“We’re exploring and talking with folks at the Bureau of Purchasing and with (Assistant Attorney General) Bill Laubenstein to see what our choices are, and what is in the best interests of the lottery and the state,” Poulin said Friday.

Poulin said options include forming a committee to re-evaluate three bids initially submitted in 2010, or issuing a new request for proposals. The bidders in 2010 were Intralot, Scientific Games and GTech Corp., based in Providence, R.I. The firms bid on a contract to provide online gaming services, which include Megabucks Plus, Powerball and other state and multi-jurisdictional games, as well as accounting and validation for Maine’s scratch tickets.

The bids were essentially for a percentage of sales: GTech’s bid was 2.5 percent, Scientific Games’ was 2.4 percent, and Intralot’s was 2.3 percent. The bids were evaluated on a 2,000-point system that took into account the bid amount and such technical criteria as facilities, software controls and data management.

The current contract calls for Maine to pay Scientific Games 4.75 percent of total sales. Poulin said the state’s intent is to seek scratch-ticket bids separately in the future.

 


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