Rhode Island-based GTECH, which ditched longtime partner Leonard Manning in May, has found a bevy of local partners with appeal across the local political spectrum. Long story short, their team has been meticulously constructed to ensure broad support on the D.C. Council, which derailed the last contract award.

From the Fenty axis, you have Darryl Wiggins. A local businessman, he's been a longtime political ally of Fenty's dating back to the his first council campaign. He also was a key member of Hizzoner's transition operation in 2006. He owns Document Managers, a business that's done a lot of business with District government and has experience in managing large tech enterprises, which is what running the lottery involves. (For further Fenty ties, his political guru, Tom Lindenfeld, has been hired by GTECH as a consultant.)

From the Gray axis, you have Lorraine Green. She's the VP in charge of human resources for Amtrak and is a former deputy director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Her close relationship with Gray goes back at least to their shared service under Mayor Sharon Pratt--she as head of personnel, he as head of human services. She's also a former executive director of the D.C. Lottery and Charitable Games Control Board. Good experience there!

Right in the middle is attorney Rod Woodson, a partner at Holland & Knight. One of the best-known lobbyists in local government, Woodson's expert at maintaining relations across political lines---in no small part by spreading campaign donations far and wide. Woodson has deep connections in the legal, real estate, and health care communities.

That leaves big fish Intralot and Scientific Games.

Scientific Games seems not to have submitted a bid, a source says, abandoning Maryland businessman Charles Hopkins; Intralot, which won the initial bid before it was controversially not approved by the D.C. Council, is said to have submitted a bid, but without its controversial local partners, Warren and Alaka Williams.

The Office of the Chief Financial Officer declined to confirm any of this, citing confidentiality laws. Spokesperson David Umansky says that "the expectation is that the recommendation will go the Mayor in the fall."

UPDATE, 3:45 P.M.: Wiggins says he was approached by GTECH about a month ago to pursue a partnership. He says he sees an affinity between his current business and the lottery business: "What we do is management of digital technology in the field. I manage digital technology in the field...It can be a lottery ticket or it can be a deposition."

Wiggins explains that if his bid is successful, his employees will be responsible for maintaining the lottery equipment.

LL asked Wiggins if his mayoral connections played into his participation: "I don't think it plays at all, to be frank with you. We have a great mayor....He doesn't believe in political patronage. All of the time I've worked for the mayor, I've never contacted him about any procurement I've been involved in. I don't expect him to be my business development manager."

UPDATE, 6/29, 12:25 P.M.: Mea culpa: Scientific Games has indeed submitted a bid, their lead local partner, Charles Hopkins, reports.

Hopkins, a Chevy Chase, Md., resident whose business concerns are based in D.C., says he's gathered four other local partners---all D.C. residents---in his group. As for their identities, Hopkins is cagey. All he'll say: "It's a team that covers the lottery/retail side of the equation---which I bring to the table---a leading technologist, and we have people who are deeply involved in the gaming industry as advisers."

UPDATE, 6/29, 3:15 P.M.: LL was able to chat with Green this afternoon, who describes her intentions thusly: "I know what it takes to have an efficiently run lottery, and that's what I'm interested in."

Green declined to address what winning the big might mean for her day job, but she says that she'll "definitely not be involved in a day-to-day full-time capacity."

Green served as executive director of the lottery board from 1989 to 1991, when she started running the city personnel department. This mind you was in the heyday of Pratt's "clean house with a shovel" effort, and few departments required as much cleaning as Gray's human services department. "I spent a lot of time working with him then," she says. "I realized how dedicated and hardworking he is." She went on to co-chair Gray's 2006 campaign for chairman, and in recent years has served on an advisory board to the lottery.

But who will step up?

The big question is: Which local business types will each of the three major global lottery equipment providers tap for a partnership? Tapping locals earns each company points in the procurement process and also helps grease the political skids.

Last month, LL ran down the possibility that Caribbean CAGE, an outfit backed by BET founder Bob Johnson and old D.C. politico Bob Washington, might pursue the potentially lucrative contract with big fish GTECH or Scientific Games.

This week, LL got an unequivocal denial from Todd Washington: "We've taken a look at the opportunity, and we don't think it fits in our sweet spot. We just don't see it being as lucrative an opportunity."

CAGE's main business is in video lottery terminals, slot-machine-like devices; the parameters of the D.C. contract, he explains, don't offer a comparable profit margin. "We don't see how we get the kind of ROI that would interest our principals. We've spent time looking at it and running through the numbers."

But Washington says, "If VLTs come into play, that's a different situation."

So where does that leave Scientific Games and GTECH?

Scientific Games, at this point, is almost certain to partner with Charles Hopkins, a Maryland businessman and former investment banker whose main business to date has been in airport retail. He's likely to have other local partners, but they are thus far unknown.

GTECH, at this point, is a cipher. The Rhode Island-based outfit has dumped longtime partner Leonard Manning, as LL first reported last month. So they're in the hunt for a new dance partner.

LL had heard rumblings about local businessman Pedro Alfonso getting involved; last time appeared as a local partner in a gaming venture it didn't turn out well: He hooked up with Caribbean financier Rob Newell and a shady Las Vegas money man, Shawn Scott, to push a plan to place hundreds of VLTs at a New York Avenue NE slots parlor. That effort ended in disgrace, with the Board of Elections and Ethics handing Alfonso et al. a half-million dollar fine for ballot fraud. In recent weeks, his name has disappeared from chatter. Also said to be in the mix is Lorraine Green, director of the city personnel office during the Sharon Pratt Kelly administration and now VP of human resources for Amtrak. More to the point, she's close friends with D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, who helped derail the original bid. Neither Alfonso or Green returned calls for comment.

Speaking of the original bid, that leaves Intralot, which was initially selected for the contract, along with partner W2Tech. That pick, infamously, was not approved by the D.C. Council, leaving Intralot with a dilemma.

They made noise last year about not participating in a rebid if political concerns caused interference, and proceeded to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to have the initial award enforced. But the prospect of leaving money on the table---and, more to the point, being politically outmaneuvered by blood rival GTECH---might be too much to bear.

But if they stick with W2Tech---headed by Alaka Williams, wife of politically connected businessman Warren C. Williams Jr.---their political problem remains. In an interview last year, Intralot exec Byron Boothe to LL, “You always take home the person you brought to the dance.”

But the facts are these: If Intralot had bid without a partner last year, they still would have beat the GTECH group---the local preference points wouldn't have made a difference.

Sometimes you take someone to the dance, and sometimes you have to leave alone.

The parties behind Lottery Technology Enterprises, the firm that’s run the District’s lottery for more than 25 years, have split up, likely ending the chances for politically connected businessman P. Leonard Manning to continue his control over the city’s numbers games.

According to three sources with knowledge of the situation, lottery provider GTECH and Manning’s New Tech Games will not partner on a bid for the latest lottery contract, bids on which are due June 26. The decision ends a relationship between the companies that stretches back to the early 1980s, when Manning and GTECH together started the District’s first daily lotto game.

Bob Vincent, a GTECH spokesperson, confirms that his company is no longer committed to partnering with Manning et al. “We like and respect those folks,” he says, “but we are in fact looking at various options in respect to the upcoming bid.”

Manning did not respond to requests for comment.

GTECH is the king of American lottery vendors, running the majority of government sponsored games in the country. Vincent declined to speak of any other potential local partners: “Because it’s a competitive procurement, we’re going to obviously play our cards pretty close to the vest.”

The split follows a yearlong drama surrounding the award of a new contract to replace the arrangement that ends this fall. LTE last year submitted a bid to extend its hold on the contract, but the Office of the Chief Financial Officer deemed the bid inferior to that of W2I, a partnership between multinational Intralot and local partner W2Tech—run by Alaka Williams, wife of politically connected businessman Warren C. Williams Jr. The award became a political hot potato in the D.C. Council, which has to approve contracts over $1 million, resulting in the contract being essentially rejected last December.

In the middle of all of that mishegoss, LTE was fined $1.4 million by the D.C. government for a massive security breach in 2006 that led to tens of thousands of dollars in ticket fraud. LTE called the unprecedented fine politically motivated.

A new request for bids was issued last month, and changes in the weighting of various city requirements were considered to be generally favorable to LTE. But the toxic political environment remains.

What are LTE’s options from here? Limited.

Any local outfit has to partner with one of the major multinational corporations that actually design and produce lottery equipment. There’s but three big players: GTECH, Intralot, and Atlanta-based Scientific Games. GTECH, of course, threw its lot in with LTE for the original bid last year and is now uncommitted; Intralot is currently attempting to have the original award enforced through various avenues; they are reportedly wavering on whether or not to participate in the rebid. That leaves Scientific Games, which was once said to be hesitant about entering a politically fraught process but has been receiving preliminary bidding information from the CFO’s office; the company did not immediately return a call for comment. One other vendor, smallish Canadian Bank Note, has also received bidding information.

LTE’s exit opens up an opportunity for another local partner to grab a piece of the lucrative numbers contract. (You may be asking: why are these local partners necessary? LL answered that question in his column last summer.)

Much of the scuttlebutt these days surrounds the intentions of Robert L. Johnson, the BET mogul, who told the Washington Post in February that he intended to bid on the D.C. contract. His gaming-related outfit, Caribbean CAGE LLC, is run by a D.C. legal and political veteran, Bob Washington, who had incidentally been associated with a group that had lost to Manning back in the ’80s. Caribbean CAGE has recently entered into partnerships with Scientific Games to install video lottery terminals in various overseas locales. A spokesperson for Johnson denies that there’s any partnership with GTECH.

But we may never know who's claiming it, though we do know it's a couple:

An attorney finally got in touch with the lottery office this week to claim the winnings on behalf of his clients. Hernandez said the money will be handed over at 11 a.m. on Monday, but the lottery commission and the attorney are still wrangling with details about the handover.

"They physically may not come," Hernandez said. The attorney said his clients want to remain anonymous and are trying to have him claim the prize for them.

The part of LL that's all about transparency is outraged that someone can win a government lottery secretly. The part of LL that read this story is glad that they have that option.

W2I, originally awarded the contract last year, has filed a protest to the rebid on the contract issued earlier this month. The upshot: The protest holds that a recent rebid should be halted, but for the time being, it will proceed, says David Umansky, spokesperson for the Office of the Chief Financial Officer.

What brought us here? Long story short:

Early last year, W2I was determined by OCFO to have won the contract to run the D.C. Lottery, beating out Lottery Technology Enterprises, which has held the contract for more than 25 years. But when the contract went to the D.C. Council for approval, it became a political hot potato, with W2I and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty on one side (the local partners are Fenty supporters Warren and Alaka Williams) and LTE (headed by connected businessman Leonard Manning) and Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray and Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham on the other. Last December, the council essentially voted to reject the contract, and in February the city canceled the original solicitation.

That cleared the way for a new solicitation, which was issued earlier this month. The new request for proposals changes the rules on which bids will be judged, leading to claims that the contract is being steered to LTE. And now comes the W2I protest of that solicitation.

This latest maneuver is part of what LL is told is thus far a $1.5 million campaign by W2I to enforce the original contract. The partnership has hired high-powered law firm Jones Day to press its case. That includes a Contract Appeals Board protest filed this spring, which argues that the contract never should have gone to the D.C. Council in the first place and, furthermore, that the council did not reject the contract on the proper basis. That protest is still pending, and it's on those grounds that this week's protest was filed. Since the original contract award is still under dispute, W2I's lawyers hold, a replacement bid can't be considered under District contracting law.

That OCFO plans to proceed with the rebid is puzzling, says spokesperson Crystal Wright, who represents W2I partner Intralot. "It's whether or not they're going to abide by the rules....The D.C. Code is very clear on this."

Will this whole thing be settled when the CAB rules on W2I's protests? Perhaps not: In a February letter to OCFO protesting the cancellation of the original solicitation, a W2I lawyer said his client "will be compelled to seek its full measure of redress from the courts."

Meanwhile, the lottery remains in the hands of LTE---a vendor assessed $1.4 million in fines for performance breakdowns. Those fees, Umansky says, have yet to be paid.

Long story short: Mayor Adrian M. Fenty wants the meaure to pass because it saves a lot of money; much of the council doesn't want it to pass because of issues with one of the partners in the contract.

The vote will be close. The CW going in is that there's six solid votes for the contract---Evans, Cheh, Bowser, Wells, Catania, and Schwartz. Beyond that, it's hard to see where a decisive second vote would come from. Don't expect Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray to do Hizzoner many favors here, if for no other reason than the fact he won't want to hand Fenty two consecutive victories (after the Peter Nickles confirmation).

Procedurally, this will probably happen fast. Someone will likely move to retable---a motion which is not debatable. If it comes off the table, it'll mean the contract will probably pass---after a whole lot of bloviating.

Check here for updates.

4:10 P.M.: The lottery contract IS NOT APPROVED. Paging Scientific Games!

4:09 P.M.: Wasn't even as close as LL thought it would be. Even Tommy Wells votes against. Final tally is 5-8.

4:07 P.M.: Numbers, numbers, numbers. "I'm gonna vote no."

4:04 P.M.: As Gray prepares to call the roll, Marion Barry says, "Just a brief point here." Evans caught on mike: "What's that mean? We're about to vote..." Barry goes on to cite W2I's profit-and-loss statement to no particular effect.

4:01 P.M.: Ooh. Here's Kwame: Talks up his support of LSDBE programs. Saw "not the experience to run anything" in W2I's local partner. Says "the initial certification of the joint venture is something that is wrong." Wow.

3:59 P.M.: Muriel Bowser plays the budget deficit card. "We're looking at an issue that promises to bring additional revenue to the District of Columbia."

3:58 P.M.: Mary Cheh: I don't know any of these people!

3:56 P.M.: "Why would I countermand an open and professional process?" Raises the failed CAB appeal. Can't bring herself to say Catania's name---"Like Jack said and the previous speaker..."

3:54 P.M.: Carol: "This is my parting gift...Thank you very much!"

3:53 P.M.: Carol's last big vote! Which way? "I said, a pox on both their houses....BUT...the longer we wait the more money we lose."

3:51 P.M.: Catania plays up the integrity of the procurement process. "In essence, the world is watching....It's about whether the same-old, same-old will continue."

3:48 P.M.: Jim Graham, W2I hater, doesn't want to talk for once in his life. David Catania now echoing Evans. He even says nice things about CFO's office! "This is not an issue of personalities to me."

3:47 P.M.: Mendo moves to close debate. He's not gonna be the seventh vote.

3:46 P.M.: Jack: "This is money we can get. This is easy money!"

3:45 P.M.: Jack makes like a God-loving GOP senator---"We should have an up-or-down vote!"

3:41 P.M.: Jack Evans is now introducing the measure. Goes through all the pro-contract talking points you've already heard.