Statehouse Insider: What's up with that lottery deal?

By Doug Finke
THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER

It was back in September that Gov. PAT QUINN held a big-to-do news conference with a bunch of other officials to announce a deal for a private management firm to run the Illinois lottery.

It was the culmination of a plan approved by lawmakers to squeeze more money out of the lottery. The idea was a private firm is better qualified to market the lottery, attract new players and entice occasional players to buy more tickets. Sell more tickets, income goes up, and a share of it goes to the state, which you may have heard needs all of the money it can get.

Well, here we are in December, and there still is no signed contract with the winning management firm, Northstar Lottery Group. And it isn’t clear when there will be one.