Friday is a big day for the Illinois lottery. It will be the day when the new, private owner starts taking over and managing all operations. Lottery officials have stated that they foresee a great increase in sales and popularity for the Illinois (former) State Lottery.
Even though the Northstar Lottery Group will formally take control on the 1st of July, the proceedings have been under way for a while now. Those who play the Illinois Lottery regularly have already witnessed several changes with the new games and signage, but that is as far as things will change in the first month. The Northstar officials said their leadership will focus on getting old players to try again, regular players to play more and new players to finally start playing. US lottery
“They will see there’s a new energy, a new excitement, a new dynamic happening, which is really epitomized by a new logo which is much brighter, funner and more approachable,” Connie Laverty O’Connor, the CEO of Northstar Lottery Group, stated. “We’re trying to make sure we will generate momentum that will generate more revenues.”
The NGS is made up of three companies which worked with the lottery long before the decision was made to send the lottery to the private sector. However, keep in mind that even though the Illinois State Lottery will be administered by the Northstar Lottery Group, the state will remain the owner and will still have full control over the lottery organization. Lottery numbers
Northstar will receive a managing fee of $15 million a year and a percentage of the lottery profits if they will be over $650 million. Meanwhile, Connie Laverty O’Connor said that her company predicts a dramatic increase in profits over the next half of decade. She said that prices might go up to anywhere in between $750 million to $1 billion. Currently, the Illinois State Lottery is ranked 18th in the USA as profits go, but O’Connor said they expect to break the top 10 soon enough.
“The only reason the state is going to a private manager was the Lottery Department under Revenue was not providing us a decent rate of return,” Rep. Jack Franks, a legislator who doesn’t quite agree with the deal, stated. “If we had run the lottery like other states run them, Georgia or Massachusetts, we’d have $500 million or $2 billion more. Why not just hire the guys who run the Massachusetts lottery?”
