COUNCIL OKS seven more years on lottery deal.

The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery’s proposed contract extension with a company that provides terminals to retailers sailed through the Legislative Council on Wednesday.

Without any discussion, the council heeded the recommendation from its lottery oversight subcommittee to complete its review of the proposed 7-year contract extension with Greece-based Intralot Inc. Lottery Director Bishop Woosley told lawmakers last week that the lottery would probably have to pay a higher rate to the winning vendor if the lottery sought bids on the contract.

Intralot Inc. provides the lottery’s retailers with terminals that are used for a variety of transactions, among them validating tickets, activations, reports and tickets for draw games such

as Powerball, Mega Millions and Natural State Jackpot. Another vendor provides scratch-off games.

“We are pleased with the result and look forward to continuing our partnership with Intralot,” Woosley said Wednesday after the Legislative Council’s meeting. The proposed extension has been executed and signed, he said.

The lottery’s current contract with Intralot Inc. expires Aug. 14, 2019. The extension will stretch that to Aug. 19, 2026, but the company’s reduced-rate offer would take effect the first of next year. Intralot reduced the rate it charges the lottery. Based on scratch-off and draw- game ticket sales, the rate will go from 2.165 percent to 2.11 percent.

This represents the second contract extension and rate reduction since Intralot was first awarded the lottery’s business in 2009.

The initial 7-year contract provided for Intralot to be paid 2.45 percent of net sales. In late 2014, the contract was extended for three years until Aug. 14, 2019, and Intralot reduced its rate from 2.45 percent of ticket sales to 2.165 percent, effective July 1, 2015. That rate reduction saved the lottery $3 million to $3.5 million over this period, Woosley

said last week.

Woosley has said that the reduced rate in the proposed contract extension would save between $2.1 million to $2.2 million, based on the lottery’s revenue remaining flat at about $450 million a year, although he hopes that revenue increases.

Intralot has held the Arkansas lottery’s contract for “online lottery game services and lottery gaming system and services” since 2009. The firm was the only bidder in 2009.

GTECH Corp. of Providence, R.I., opted against submitting a bid in 2009, calling the bid process flawed.

Under the terms of the contract extension, Intralot will provide 2,200 new terminals and printers to accommodate “the reasonable demands of the retailer base.” The terminals will be deployed on a mutually agreed-upon staggered basis that would begin in August 2019.

In March 2016, the lottery approved a five- year business plan developed by lottery consultant Camelot Global Services that called for increasing the number of retailers selling tickets by 600 and taking other steps to increase revenue and net proceeds for college scholarships. As of July 31, the lottery reported 1,934 retailers selling lottery tickets — up from 1,917 retailers on July 31, 2016.