Three bids in for Arkansas Instant Lottery games contract

As the lone bidder for the contract to run drawing games, Intralot offered its services for a fee of 2.45% of net ticket sales. A legislative committee that oversees the Arkansas Lottery Commission must still review the contract awarded to Intralot, however the games are expected to be ready by September 28th, nearly three months ahead of schedule.

Yesterday lottery officials opened bids for the new contract to run Arkansas' instant win games, with three bids submitted by Gtech, Scientific Games and Pollard Banknote Limited.

The lottery's target date to launch instant win games was previously set for October 29th, although it now seems likely that draw games will commence before instant win games.

The Arkansas Lottery Commission also approved Wednesday a number of cost-cutting measures proposed by Lottery Director, Ernie Passailaigue, including discontinuation of sponsorship of sports events, festivals and other special events, saving $500,000 annually.

In addition, winning lottery numbers will now be chosen by a random number generator and announced on the Internet instead of on live television. Mr Passailaigue said a random number generator would incur a one-off cost of $100,000, compared to building a studio and holding televised drawings which would incur a one-off cost of $1.7 million and an annual cost of $820,000.