An effort to privatize the sales and marketing of the New Jersey Lottery has resulted in just one bidder.

The joint venture making the bid consists of GTECH Corporation, Scientific Games International, and the largest pension fund in Canada.

Assembly budget committee chairman Vinnie Prieto says the lack of competitive bids is a concern.
 

“It sends kind of mixed signals to me because you would figure if it’s that attractive to somebody you would have had multiple bidders.”

Treasury Department spokesman Bill Quinn says having a single bid is not a problem.

“The bid is going to be analyzed very carefully to determine whether it’s going to be in the best interests of the state to move forward with it. We’ll apply the same analysis and procedure to this bid as if we had multiple bids.”

Quinn says it could take three months to decide whether the state will give that group a contract.