PROVIDENCE – GTECH Corp., a subsidiary of Italy’s Lottomatica SpA, today announced it has been tapped as the preferred bidder in the competition to provide a new online lottery system and services to the New York Lottery.

The tentative deal, awarded via a competitive bidding process, is valued by the state at more than $550 million over the next seven years. The contract is expected to begin in March 2010, and to include the option of a three-year extension.

“We are pleased to continue our successful partnership with GTECH and look forward to a new generation of state-of-the-art equipment,” Gordon Medenica, director of the New York Lottery, said in a statement today. “The New York Lottery makes extreme demands on its full-service system, with huge transaction volume, complexity of operations, diverse geography, extensive marketing and constantly evolving game choices,” he added. “Reliability, integrity and experience are critical … and GTECH has consistently delivered.”

It will include a custom-tailored version of GTECH’s Enterprise Series lottery solution, with a variety of online and instant systems; a new wireless telecommunications network; up to 20,000 Altura online lottery terminals; self-service Lottery To Go and Instant To Go vending machines and additional TicketScan ticket-checker units; ES MultiMedia digital advertising displays; and ongoing services from marketing, technical support and maintenance to instant-ticket warehousing and distribution, the company said.

“We are proud of our successful 23-year partnership with the New York Lottery,” said GTECH President and CEO Jaymin B. Patel. Going forward, “we will continue to work together … on enhancing their product and game portfolio, and providing them with a flexible platform to launch the next generation of gaming technology, in order to maximize even greater returns for education in New York.”

In fiscal 2008, the New York Lottery recorded more than $7.5 billion in sales, and passed along $2.6 billion to support educational programs in the state.

GTECH Corp. – a wholly owned subsidiary of Italy-based Lottomatica SpA (Pink Sheets: LTTOY; Milan Stock Exchange: LTO), which posted 2008 revenue of 1.82 billion euros – has provided lottery technology and services to the R.I. Lottery since 1978. Together, the gaming technology, services and lottery operations companies have 5,900 employees in more than 50 countries. More information is available at www.gtech.com or www.GruppoLottomatica.it/eng.