In PENNSYLVANIA, Gov. Tom Corbett is having another go at privatizing management of the Pennsylvania Lottery. Corbett’s previous attempt to award the contract to UK National Lottery operator Camelot was voided by state Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who said the deal to allow the lottery to expand operations online and put electronic keno games in bars represented an “unlawful extension of executive authority.”
On Friday, Corbett announced he would submit a revised contract in the “upcoming months” that would address Kane’s concerns, although he declined to offer specifics. However, earlier in the week Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati said at least some of the changes would be to ensure that the Lottery wouldn’t compete with the state’s brick-and-mortar casinos by offering online gambling. That sentiment may or may not bode well for the online poker and blackjack bill that state Rep. Tina Davis has been promising to introduce for a month or so.
WYOMING has at long last joined the ranks of lottery-offering states. Gov. Matt Mead signed legislation on Wednesday that will allow Wyoming residents to legally purchase lottery tickets in their home state beginning in 2014. Legislators will hold a vote six years after the launch date to determine whether they wish to continue the lottery project or rejoin Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Mississippi, Nevada and Utah as the United States’ last bastions of anti-random-wealth-creation puritanism.
Finally, lottery retailers in MAINE are up in arms over the Maine State Lottery’s decision to rebrand its scratch tickets as ‘Kwikies.’ While Lottery staff claim they considered as many as 60 names before making a decision, variety store owner Bob Duran told the Bangor Daily News he’d tried asking a couple female customers if they fancied a Kwikie, and “it didn’t go over very well.” Perhaps it was your delivery?
