Good morning, Washington! The weather gods have decided to mix it up a little bit today, blessing us with a little less humidity than normal. Don't worry about big meteorological shake ups, though—temperatures will still be in the familiar mid-90s range.

The Washington Times continues its reporting on the sketchy D.C. lottery contract with the news that the two councilmembers who most vocally supported the deal, Marion Barry and Chair Vincent Gray, also had personal connections to Emmanuel S. Bailey, one of the principals of Veterans Services Corp., the local firm awarded the majority stake of the contract. Both Barry and Gray also urged the Greek gambling company Intralot to partner with a local firm.

Federal agents with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested a Maryland man suspected of committing for two mother-daughter murders in Largo, Md. last year. This won't be the first serious criminal charge for the 27-year-old UPS employee (whose name is being withheld because he has not yet been formally charged); he already has gun, burglary and child porn charges on his record, according to the Examiner.

On the other end of the Maryland justice system, Charles County Circuit Judge Robert Nalley will be suspended without pay for five days for deflating a cleaning woman's car tire.

With its first payday out of the way, the beleaguered D.C. Summer Youth Employment Program has had fewer payroll problems this year than it did in previous years, the Post reports.

Some sad news for local animal lovers: six guinea pigs were found in a trash can in Southeast; the three surviving rodents are being cared for by the Washington Humane Society. Also, illegal rat poison has been found in Georgetown. Jane Huelle, who runs The Dog Shop on Wisconsin Ave., says she knows of three dogs who have died from rat poisoning in Northwest this year.

Photo by Flickr user Lisa Brewster, used under a Creative Commons license.

Intralot, a Greek-owned multinational firm, has been approved to take over the city's online number games from longtime operator Lottery Technology Enterprises—a contract worth nearly $40 million over five years. The company's successful first bid ended in a political fiasco, with several councilmembers refusing to ratify the contract after raising questions about minority partners. A second round of bidding ensued, and Intralot chose to bid without local participation and won again.

But the second round wasn't without controversy. Two other bidding groups raised questions about the process, and in a council hearing last Tuesday, one of them, organized by Intralot competitor GTECH, detailed various problems getting certified as a local/small/disadvantaged business—a process that could have changed the outcome of the bidding.

On the dais today, several councilmember raised questions about the award. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray said called the affair "one of the most reprehensible processes I've seen in a long time" and "just a picture of ineptitude." But he also said that the appearance last week by Intralot and its local partners, Veterans Services Corp., raised his confidence in the contract award.

In the end, only At-Large Councilmember Phil Mendelson voted against the contract, saying on the dais that there is "very good possibility that the fix was in." Gray and Kwame Brown abstained (Gray's close friend and former campaign chair Lorraine Green is involved with the GTECH group; it's unclear why Brown voted as he did). Muriel Bowser of Ward 4 voted present; nine remaining councilmembers voted to approve.

Afterward, former Ward 7 Councilmember Kevin Chavous, who has been lobbying on behalf of Intralot, celebrated the long-coming victory outside the council chambers, along with Emmanuel Bailey, co-owner of Veterans Service Corp., which Intralot intends to contract with to run the lottery.

"This is exciting for the city," Chavous said, promising that the new operators will up lottery profits for the city and bring new technology and games to the approximately 600 lottery outlets in the city.

But the prospect of a protracted legal battle over the contract award looms. Chavous says that's "the belly of the best."

"This is a large contract," he says. "You'd expect it to be competitive. People are going to fight."

UPDATE, 3:20 P.M.: Gray and Brown provide some more background on their abstentions. Gray says he didn't abstain due to his relationship to Green, who was involved in one of the bidding groups. Rather, Gray says, "I abstained because the process was flawed, but I didn't want to send the message that [Intralot] was unqualified." Brown provided a similar rationale: "There was just so much going on, it would not have been responsible" to vote to approve. "I was going to vote yes," he said, "but so much stuff kept coming up."

Gray explained the willingness of nine councilmembers to vote in approval of such a questionable process this way: "Nobody wants to be in a position of being accused of obstructing additional revenue during this period of tough finances."

UPDATE, 5:30 P.M.: Bowser adds a similar discomfited note: "I remained uncomfortable with the whole situation. At the same time, we have an incumbent that needs to be replaced."

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.

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.