The State : Firms Ready Lottery Bids

State officials said eight firms have indicated interest in bidding on a stop-gap contract to prevent the California Lottery from running out of tickets. They include the two companies whose legal dispute prompted the state to cancel the current contract. Lottery Director Mark Michalko said a new contract, which probably will be let next week, will ensure that 200 million tickets for the lottery’s ninth game will be ready when stockpiled supplies for the eighth game run out sometime in the fall. Michalko decided to scuttle a recently extended ticket contract with Scientific Games Inc. when a court-appointed arbitrator ruled in a longstanding dispute that Scientific Games’ printing subcontractor, Dittler Brothers Inc., had been overcharging for materials.