WILKES-BARRE – Several convenience store workers and senior citizens in Luzerne County said they were relieved after hearing that Governor Tom Corbett’s plan to privatize the PA Lottery will not happen.
A statement from the governor’s office in Harrisburg said the highly-debated proposal for a company in the United Kingdom to run the PA Lottery was dropped.
“In April 2012, the commonwealth began the competitive procurement process to engage a private manager to run the Pennsylvania Lottery. Last November, it announced Camelot Global, LLC, a global leader in the lottery sector, as the selected vendor and awarded the contract. However, the process was later challenged by the Attorney General, prompting several extensions of the bid,” the statement said.
“Pennsylvania initially pursued a contract for management services to assure a more predictable and growing revenue source for older Pennsylvanians and to keep up with the anticipated demand for our growing senior population.”
A part-owner at Anthracite Newstand in Wilkes-Barre told Newswatch 16 that she was relieved to hear that PA Lottery will still be run by the Commonwealth.
"It's not broken. Leave it alone,” said Ann Marie Bossard. "It’s just incredible how other states had done this and they did privatize it and they had ruined their whole state with the lottery. It took them a long time to come back from the lottery.”
Walter Serefan said he’s still working as a school crossing guard in Wilkes-Barre at age 77, but he and others depend on benefits from the PA Lottery.
“Going to the bus for old people, it helps for your heating, so the lottery does really help us out,” said Serefan.