Lottery sale

I went to a convenience store and bought a lottery ticket the gentleman told me that the lottery is no longer own by the state of New Jersey. He stated that the ex governor Chris Christie sold it to a business. He also told me he heard that the state is paying the business around 5 to 10 million dollars a year. Because the company is not make enough money so my questions are is any of these fact or fiction. Is the state paying the company money per year and how much and Ken the new governor Murphy break the contract and have the state making money.

— A reader

I believe the lottery privatization happened in 2013, but I’m not 100% on that. But it has been losing money for the state for a while, but not straight payouts. The payment last year was in the neighborhood of $100M for Northstar, but that is the payment for their services and is determined as a portion of the total take from the lotto, which is in the billion dollar neighborhood. Total lottery sales have been down considerably, Christie said a couple of years back that it was Northstar who kept sales from dropping even further.

— Ed Note