CWA RELEASES TV COMMERCIAL: Tell Governor Christie To Stop His Lottery Privatization Scheme

Could Cost 7K NJ Jobs & Ship Profits Overseas to Foreign Corporations

(TRENTON, NJ) – Today, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) launched a six-figure ad campaign to educate New Jersey residents about Governor Chris Christie’s short-sighted scheme to privatize the state lottery. The television commercial will run as a statewide cable buy for the next few weeks. You can view the :30 second spot – entitled “Bad” below.

“Even though New Jersey has an efficient, award-winning lottery, Governor Christie is stubbornly seeking to privatize it. This is a big gamble in terms of both job loss and our state’s economy,” said Seth Hahn, Legislative and Political Director for CWA NJ. “With one in ten New Jerseyans already out-of-work, lottery privatization is a bad deal which would make foreign corporations rich while making things worse for taxpayers and small businesses.”

Only a single bid to run sales and marketing functions of the state lottery was submitted on December 27, 2012, and it was by a partnership consisting of three groups. One is Italian-owned, one is Canadian, and the other is from New York. The Christie administration estimates that $1 billion or more could go to the company over the life of the contract - meaning New Jersey dollars will be sent out-of-state and overseas.

To increase sales, the playing field will be tilted away from Main Street and small businesses and towards big boxes and chain stores. In fact, the Asian American Retailers Association (AARA) estimates the privatization scheme could result in 7,000 New Jersey jobs lost. AARA estimates local lottery vendors will lose a third of sales in the first year alone. Moreover, they’ll lose secondary sales that come with the purchase of lottery tickets - such as newspapers, coffee and other daily-purchased items. In other words, a politically-connected foreign corporation would rake in profits, while New Jersey’s local businesses would lose both revenue and jobs.

“Rather than stripping customers away from small businesses at a time when our state has the nation’s fourth worst unemployment, the governor should be working to make the lottery even stronger with dedicated public employees,” said Hahn. “We’re willing to roll up our sleeves and get this done if Governor Christie is, too.”

As part of the push to privatize, Governor Christie commissioned a study that showed how New Jersey’s award-winning lottery was one of the nation’s best-run public lotteries. The study found that our lottery had the highest net income margin in the country – making New Jersey America’s most efficient lottery. It ranks 5th in per capita sales, while online, instant and total sales growth have all far exceeded the national average. Nonetheless, Christie is still making the shocking decision to turn sales and marketing functions over to a foreign private company. Even worse, despite a 42% growth in sales from 2000-2010, this politically-connected firm will get a cut of profits if it increases sales a mere 9% over the next 15 years. The arrangement will also put taxpayers on the hook if the State wants out of the bad deal.

Just as the Christie administration has ducked questions on Ash Britt and Superstorm Sandy clean-up contracts, it has also refused to answer questions about plans for the lottery. In Pennsylvania, Republican Governor Tom Corbett was up-front regarding how their new lottery would function, and what, if any regulations would be changed to accommodate the new vendor. However, the Christie administration has repeatedly refused to answer basic questions, even rejecting invitations from the Assembly Budget Committee on two occasions. These rebuffs led the New Jersey State Assembly to seek subpoena power over executive branch officials on issues with significant budget impacts.

Today, the New Jersey Senate’s State Government Committee is discussing two pieces of legislation on the matter in Trenton. One bill requires legislative approval for private operation of the state lottery. The second is a resolution calling on Governor Christie to seek legal counsel from the Department of Justice before awarding the contract.

For more information on lottery privatization and efforts to stop it, please visit www.BigGambleNJ.com