After a year of attempts to keep an effort alive to privatize operation of the Pennsylvania Lottery, Governor Tom Corbett said last week that he is ending his courtship of British national lottery operator Camelot Global Services.
Last year, Corbett signed a deal with Camelot to take over management of the lottery, one of the nation’s oldest, in a deal that contractually promised at least $34 billion in profits over 20 years. The contract was immediately controversial. State Treasurer Rob McCord claimed it was illegal, and threatened to withhold payments under the contract. Everyone from press analysts to lottery officials to the union representing lottery employees criticized the distribution of some of the lucrative lottery’s revenues to a foreign company.
The deal ultimately was declared unconstitutional by state Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who held last February that such a contract requires approval by the state legislature. Corbett then embarked on an effort to change the Camelot agreement to satisfy the objections of both Kane and state lawmakers, while continuing the deadline to retain Camelot as a potential operator under last year’s bid. Last week, that effort ended when Corbett said he will allow Camelot’s bid to expire.
“Camelot’s bid was based on a certain landscape a year ago,” Corbett Press Secretary Jay Pagni told the Associated Press. “It’s fair for all parties that, because of the additional risk or uncertainty of the management’s ability to meet those profit commitments, we let the bid expire.”
Corbett did not rule out other efforts in the future to privatize the lottery.
