Turks Lottery Privatization Date Now Jan. 9

October 7, 2008 (InfoPowa News) — The Turkish government has re-set the date for the privatization of the national lottery Milli Piyango to January 9, 2009, following strong bidding from interested international parties, ReporterNet informs.
 
Companies interested in the tender include Lottomatica unit GTech, Greek companies Opap and Intralot, Turkey's Koc Group, Austrian Lotteries, U.S. firm Scientific Games, and Britain's Camelot.
 
The privatization will involve a re-branding exercise, and the appointment of a regulatory authority for the Turkish lottery business.
 
ReporterNet asserts that the sell-off is part of a wide privatization program that the country is implementing in order to generate much-needed foreign revenues to help ease a bloated current account deficit.