Bally’s-Intralot’s bid for Maryland lottery contract

With the staggering amounts of money to be made in state lottery systems nationwide, companies vying for pieces of those pies are thrown into an exacting, cut-throat, and rough-and-tumble world with individuals and the firms they represent wrestling with each other as they claw for an upper hand.

The payoffs are in the millions of dollars for the entity chosen to run the respective states’ lotteries. 

“A lot­tery gam­ing sys­tem is not a com­mod­ity pur­chase; it is a highly spe­cial­ized, rev­enue-crit­ical plat­form that requires seam­less integ­ra­tion, retailer train­ing and phased imple­ment­a­tion,” said Patrick M. Brenner, pres­id­ent and CEO of the South­w­est Pub­lic Policy Insti­tute.

In fiscal 2016, for example, lottery ticket sales in Maryland generated a record $1.9 billion in sales. Meanwhile, in FY 2024, the District of Columbia brought in $324 million. States with the highest sales in 2025 were New York, $10.25 billion; Florida, $9.13 billion; California, $8.93 billion; and Texas, $7.91 billion.

Companies vie to run state lottery programs. (Courtesy photo)

In Maryland, two companies, Scientific Games (SGI) and Intralot are locked in yet another bitter battle over who will be awarded the state’s very profitable contract. This will also give the company the right to manage Maryland’s lottery systems for the next 10 years.

It may be up to a judge to settle the increasingly muddled and rancorous dispute.

Scientific Games, the incumbent, lost the contract to Intralot on price because Intralot tendered a $260 million bid, $110 million less than Scientific Games. Intralot was subsequently disqualified over MBE certifications of two vendors not being certified at the time of submission though they were cleared by the time of the award (which is a technicality). 

Scientific Games may have been in the catbird seat but some industry insiders familiar with the situation note that Scientific Games had such bad relationships and a reputation of traditionally overcharging the state and under-delivering on service, that the commission voted not to award the contract.

An underlying issue was also fallout from a minority contractor that caused the lottery commission to tread lightly.

Scientific Games (SGI) filed a lawsuit in October 2025 described as a “meritorious bid process” after The Maryland Lottery & Gaming Control Agency (MLGCA) withdrew its award of the state’s lottery bid, citing the fact that competitor Intralot came in with a bid $110 million less than SGI.

The company sued Intralot and several agency officials including the director and chief operating officer.

“Scientific Games is irreparably harmed by the clear violation of law taking place where a properly drafted and published RFP—to which SCIENTIFIC GAMES submitted a proposal that is the most advantageous to the State submitted by a responsible offeror—is supplanted to allow another applicant to get a prohibited second chance, and where that other applicant’s proposal was not susceptible for award based on a failure to submit a proposal compliant with the mandatory requirements of COMAR Title 21. D,” the lawsuit stated. 

The company contended that Maryland officials did not take into consideration the value and advantages of continuing with the company, which officials claim was exceeding revenue expectations for the state.

The new owner of Intralot says he expects these and similar challenges will be a thing of the past now that Intralot has now been placed under the umbrella of the Bally’s Corporation.

“We’re in the business of investing in what we think are good companies,” said Soo Kim, chairman of the board of directors of Bally’s Corporation, which owns and operates several casinos in the U.S. “Intralot had bad balance sheets, was mismanaged, had variable events and had limited resources but it has good bones as an innovative system lottery provider.”

In addition, Kim said, Intralot was over-leveraged with debt trading at 50 cents on the dollar.

“We look for innovation disrupters. We felt good because we found a technically sound company but with some employers who had a sense of belief that with no resources you may feel there’s no way out.”

Goals for Intralot: ‘We’re Asking People to Give Us Another Chance’

Since acquiring Intralot in the summer of 2023, and making a different investment in 2025, Kim said Bally’s infusion of fresh resources is strengthening the company and they are beginning to fill the management team.

“It’s too early to anticipate what level of success we’ll have but we’re very optimistic. People have a certain view of Intralot that we hope to change,” said Kim, who is the founding partner of Standard General and is the firm’s managing partner and chief investment officer.   

Bally’s-Intralot has the best balance sheet in lottery, Kim declared.

This new entity’s competition is Brightstar and Scientific Games. The goal now, Kim asserts is to work in ways hard and smart to become Number 1 in the lottery ecosystem.

“Currently, we are number three of three. Intralot has had very bad balance sheets for the last decade and internal and external challenges,” said Kim, who was born in Seoul, South Korea but moved with his family to Queens, New York City when he was 5. “These problems seeped into the minds of the management team. The biggest challenge is to change people’s minds externally and internally. We have had some leadership changes and we’re working to change people’s perceptions inside and out.”

For Kim and Bally’s-Intralot, past is not prologue, but a roadmap that offers officials in the new company ways to sidestep, avoid and recognize issues that have plagued them in the past.

The lottery goings-on in New Mexico for example, are an opportunity for Bally’s-Intralot to show off its ability to do the job.

“People should give us another chance,” Kim said, “we’re asking people to give us another chance.” 

Criticism About Scientific Games ‘Botched Rollout’ in New Mexico

Scientific Games became the new operator after a stint by Intralot ended. Based on an investigation into the changeover, the transition has been anything but smooth.

Brenner criticized Scientific Games for the damage the “botched rollout” of the new gaming system has had on a variety of areas of New Mexico life.

The institute’s investigative report, “Rolling the Dice,” and an opinion piece by Brenner in the Santa Fe New Mexican, details the chaos.

“The lot­tery’s pro­cure­ment and trans­ition pro­cess has been marked by delays, doc­u­ment­a­tion gaps and mount­ing oper­a­tional risks that now extend bey­ond the agency and into the classrooms it is meant to sup­port,” Brenner said. “This was not a routine inform­a­tion tech­no­logy upgrade. It was a once-in-a-dec­ade replace­ment of the New Mex­ico lot­tery schol­ar­ship’s core fin­an­cial backbone. The author­ity selec­ted Sci­entific Games as its new part­ner because it was the low­est-cost option on paper, des­pite com­pet­it­ors such as Inter­na­tional Game Tech­no­logy scor­ing higher on tech­nical mer­its.”

The CEO said there were further complications, such as the eval­u­ation com­mit­tee, reportedly, not taking notes during the lottery’s selec­tion pro­cess, leading to major domino effects. 

This admin­is­trat­ive neg­li­gence leaves this entire trans­ition vul­ner­able to lit­ig­a­tion and provides no account­ab­il­ity to tax­pay­ers,” Brenner continued. “The dam­age is already mani­fest­ing across the state, and the field reports are dire.”

Retail­ers describe a sys­tem in slow motion where ticket print­ing takes sig­ni­fic­antly longer than it did under the pre­vi­ous infra­struc­ture. There is a total absence of Fast Play games at retail loc­a­tions, and the lot­tery call cen­ter is effect­ively miss­ing in action when clerks need help, Brenner explained.

“These are not mere incon­veni­ences for busi­ness own­ers. They are sys­temic red flags indic­at­ing a fail­ure to adequately pre­pare the people on the front lines who actu­ally gen­er­ate rev­enue for our state,” he said. “The deeper fail­ure here is insti­tu­tional. Pub­lic pro­cure­ment is designed to bal­ance cost, com­pet­ence and con­tinu­ity, espe­cially in sys­tems that gen­er­ate rev­enue rather than con­sume it.”

He said choosing the lowest bidder only considers “short-term optics” as opposed to “long-term performance

“In a sys­tem where every trans­ac­tion funds a stu­dent’s future, fra­gil­ity is a liab­il­ity,” he continued. “By rush­ing this trans­ition and exhaust­ing the legal exten­sion lim­its with the outgoing vendor, Int­ralot, the author­ity has backed itself into a corner.”

Thirty percent of gross sales from the New Mexico lottery is allotted to the Legislative Lottery Scholarship Fund which supports college education for residents. As of April 2021, according to the Las Cruces Sun News, the New Mexico Lottery has generated approximately $3.28 billion in ticket sales since its launch in 1996, with more than $1.79 billion paid in prizes.

If this sys­tem fails, the sav­ings prom­ised by the low bid will be swal­lowed whole by lost schol­ar­ship rev­enue and legal fees, Brenner warned.

“New Mex­ico stu­dents deserve a lot­tery that works,” he asserted, “not a high-s­takes gamble with their futures.”

Next Steps for Bally’s-Intralot

The contrast in what Bally’s-Intralot and its competitor offered is as different as night and day, Kim said, especially as new and robust systems are put in place.

“We are running lottery systems in Illinois, Georgia, Arkansas, Ohio, New Hampshire, Montana and Washington D.C. We are also in 23 countries – we have a very large international footprint,” said Kim. “We hope to be a share gainer-based company with a strong heritage, resources and balance sheet. I honestly believe that Intralot has the best balance sheet and credit profile of the major systems providers.”

One crucial difference between the old and new companies is that Bally’s-Intralot is MBE-certified, which Kim said offers the company several advantages for participation and access.  Further, the company is part of the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC).

“We intend to make that known and understood that Bally’s is an NMSDC  corporation. We’re the only one. We occupy a major, major procurement space for government,” he said. We now qualify on our own. The certification came through last year.”

Kim said the new company will honor all existing contracts.

“Over time, if we need to make changes, we will.”

Source: Washington Informer