GTech and Scientific Games to Establish Illinois Internet Gambling

Posted: September 17, 2010

Updated: October 4, 2017

GTech and Scientific Games have succeeded in a joint effort to become the first private business enterprise providing government-approved internet gambling

GTech and Scientific Games have succeeded in a joint effort to become the first private business enterprise providing government-approved internet gambling in United States. The state of Illinois yesterday announced that the GTech/Scientific Games bid had topped that from UK-based lottery provider Camelot.

The business plan for the Illinois lottery called for $4.8 billion in funds to be collected in the next five years for the state. The contract calls for the GTech/Scientific enterprise, called Northstar Lottery Group, to supply gaming for ten years.

The move is thought to represent an inroad for the companies to eventually produce Internet poker and online casinos in the United States on an intrastate basis. Illinois, New York, California and Massachusetts are all said to be in various stages of considering intrastate online gambling, while New Hampshire and Iowa both halted recently halted plans to create a state lottery-based internet gaming website.

It remains to be seen whether Illinois will actually follow through with internet gaming; as the New Hampshire Lottery Commission executive director stated when publicly canceling the online program: “In light of our other challenges at this time, it is clear that the resources needed to introduce and sustain [a lottery website] would be a poor return on investment.”

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