Lottery vendors gave to Dems, records show

One vendor’s lottery contract is at the center of a lawsuit.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Two vendors competing to run a new Ohio Lottery game showered tens of thousands of dollars on a political group benefiting Democratic governors, including Ohio’s Ted Strickland.

Intralot Inc. gave its first donation this year to the Democratic Governors Association on April 11, according to federal filings. The $50,000 check landed the day after final bid documents were opened in Ohio to operate the Ohio Lottery for the next decade.

The Georgia-based company learned from lottery officials April 25 that it had the apparent successful bid. The company wrote a second $50,000 check July 7.

The company gave no comparable donations to the Republican Governors Association this year, that group’s records show.

Intralot’s contract is at the center of a lawsuit over whether Ohio followed proper procedure in awarding it. The contract is worth an estimated $170 million over 10 years.

Rhode Island-based GTECH, a longtime operator of the state’s lottery terminals that filed the lawsuit, has given $75,125 to the Democratic governors’ group since January, more than the $50,000 it gave to the Republican Governors Association.

David Leland, a former Ohio Democratic Party chairman who served as finance chairman of Strickland’s 2006 campaign, is employed as a consultant to the Democratic Governors Association, the group’s financial filings show. Leland has been paid $12,000 a month since at least January.

DGA spokesman Brian Namey said the contributions are unrelated to either the Ohio contract or any consulting work Leland has done for the association.

GTECH has given to the association for at least a decade, as well as to its GOP counterpart — as has another American lottery vendor, Scientific Games Corp. Intralot, a relative newcomer to the U.S. market — not just this year.

Namey said dates that appear on association finance reports can be misleading because they can reflect the date on a check, the date of a deposit or the date of a report filing.

Messages seeking comment were left with Intralot.

According to court filings, Intralot operates online state lotteries in three other states: Idaho, Nebraska and Montana. Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer is vice chairman of the Democrat Governors Association.

Intralot has given to another governor as well: New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

Richardson, the immediate past chairman of the DGA, received $1,000 from Intralot CEO and president Tom Little and $2,000 from vice president John Pittman during his last month as chairman, according to campaign finance data compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Richardson’s campaign fund had donated $10,000 to Strickland during his 2006 bid for governor.