N.C. lottery tickets only two months away

Friday, January 27, 2006 posted 10:18 AM EST

RALEIGH -- North Carolinians should be able to buy their first home-state lottery tickets before the end of March, under terms of a contract reached Monday with the company hired to run the games.

RALEIGH -- North Carolinians should be able to buy their first home-state lottery tickets before the end of March, under terms of a contract reached Monday with the company hired to run the games.

GTECH, which is based in Rhode Island, won the rights from the state lottery commission to provide both scratch-off instant tickets and online ticket sales, such as those used in pick-4 games and the multistate Powerball contest.

Left out of the running was GTECH's major competitor, Scientific Games, which had become embroiled in a controversy involving its lobbying tactics at the General Assembly.

According to the seven-year deal, GTECH will be paid a percentage of the lottery's profits.

The company would receive roughly $19 million if the state were to sell $1.2 billion in tickets in a given year, Lottery Executive Director Tom Shaheen said.

he contract also calls for scratch-off ticket sales to begin no later than March 30 -- six days earlier than the April 5 target announced when Shaheen was hired.

Shaheen said Powerball sales are now scheduled to begin May 30, which is more than a month earlier than the mid-July or early-August start originally anticipated.

"It is a very aggressive time-line, but we will have people on the ground tomorrow ready to work," said Angela Wiczek, a GTECH spokeswoman.

Wiczek -- reached at her office after the lottery commission met Monday to award the contract -- said the company would have to manufacture, ship and install the lottery terminals over the next 60 days.

In making his recommendation to the lottery commission, Shaheen praised GTECH

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