Colorado Lottery accused of poor management
One of the most important things for a lottery is to have a spotless reputation, because the moment players lose confidence in the service, they stop buying tickets. This is why the allegations of poor management and bias that hover over the Colorado Lottery are hurting the institution and the officials are scrambling to come up with convincing explanations. The criticism was ignited by the fact that the lottery committee decided to award an Italian company the right to organize the games for the next 10 years.
Competitors accuse Colorado Lottery of prejudice
Whenever a lottery announces that it is about to decide the name of the company that will run the games for the next decade, ventures from all over the world sign up. Colorado Lottery has plenty to offer to both its customers and the ones in charge of the games, which explains why three major companies applied for a license. Competitor Scientific Games International was among the losers and it appears that they are sour about what the lottery committee decided and they didn’t hesitate to express their opinion.
Colorado Lottery was not crystal clear in its attempts of highlighting the facts that led them to the conclusion that it was best to trust Gtech to run their games. One of the things they said is that the US-based company that is a subsidiary of an Italian venture has excellent technical services and they will keep the game fair and running smoothly. What they failed to prove is that their decision will maximize the revenue for the lottery itself and state income. The competitors said that they offered better terms yet the lottery committee chose to ignore them completely, which is a clear sign of bias.
Lower bidders at a disadvantage
Intralot and Scientific Games were very vocal in the wake of the decision and what appears to be particularly frustrating for the two companies that lost is that the contract is shrouded in partial mystery. Transparency is very important in these cases and unfortunately for the Colorado Lottery, there are some loopholes in the contract that could lead to higher final costs to the state. Lottery director Abel Tapia responded the two disgruntled competitors but refused to debate the matter with the media.
The Colorado Lottery enjoys a lot of freedom and has operated for more than three decades, with sales generating billions of dollars for the state. The players are generally content with the services they offer and the truth is that they are not too interested about what the company will be running the games. All that the lottery players are concerned with is for the games to remain fair and of course they hope that the price of a ticket will not be increased. None of the three companies who announced their intention of running the games for the next 10 years said anything about increasing the price of lottery tickets.
Check out Colorado Lottery latest results as well.
