Maryland's Lottery Agency plans to petition to spend $90 million dollars over the period of five years to extend its deal with the group that handles the system used to operate all of Maryland's gaming systems.
The agreement, coming before the BPW at its formal talks on Wednesday, May 19th, 2010, would be discussed on top of an $81 million dollars agreement that will end in June 2010. Maryland's gaming contractor Scientific Games International, which has its headquarters in Georgia, has been operating under that deal since 2005.
The state lottery wants to utilize its renewal option for five years under the current deal, which lottery officials said produces $1.6 billion dollars for Maryland annually. Robert Howells, Maryland State Lottery's director of procurement, state that the deal includes all gaming materials like the state's keno gaming system, satellite dishes used for connecting the different divisions of the state lottery and others.
Director Howells said that the operating system handles the business division of the Maryland Lottery. The system will not fully work under the slots program of the state, which is managed by a separate I.T. deal approved in January this year. That deal could cost the lottery an additional $40 million dollars.
Howells stated before the Board of Public Works that the plan could cost less than the ninety-nine million dollars cost stated in the formal documents. The state of Maryland would need to achieve the predictions that say that the lottery profits will significantly increase in the near future for it to cost a lot of money. Director Howell said that Scientific Games International will be paid based on the profits of Maryland from its gaming offerings like keno.
Author: John M. Thorpe
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