Boston Globe reporting that AZ's lottery system is in Y2K danger. Unfortunately, the entire fear is based on the phantom "9/9/99" problem.
boston.com
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Y2K worries prompt lottery operator to set deadline for changeover
By Paul Davenport, Associated Press, 12/18/98 19:48
PHOENIX (AP) - Politics and the millennium bug are prompting the company that operates the Arizona Lottery's on-line games to force a Sept. 1 deadline for the state to have a new system running.
GTECH Corp. wants assurances that if it does not have the new long-term contract being awarded next year, it will be able to pull out before Sept. 9, 1999.
Jan. 1, 2000 is the date normally associated with the so-called Y2K problem. Computers programmed to recognize only the last two digits in a date could crash when those numbers read double zero.
But GTECH officials said the 14-year-old system it uses to run Arizona's Lotto and other on-line games could fail Sept. 9, 1999 - a date programmed in some computers as 9-9-99.
GTECH regional software manager David Adams said Friday that other companies have tested old computers and found that some crash or run improperly when they hit Sept. 9, 1999.
In some cases, it could be because a computer doesn't know what date to use. In others, the computer is confused because programmers in past decades used 9999 to represent infinity or a date they wanted to mark as never having happened, Adams said.
''We really don't know if it would have an effect'' on the Arizona system, Adams said. ''It very well might be we wouldn't have a problem with that date. That's our concern - we don't know.''
Lottery officials said they're confident a replacement system will be installed, tested and working by Sept. 2, but GTECH executives made it perfectly clear that there won't be any more extensions if some company other than GTECH wins the next contract but is not ready by then.
The company's reputation in an extremely competitive industry would be at stake if it tried to use the old system past Sept. 1 and it failed, said Donald Sweitzer, senior vice president.
GTECH can replace its system before the deadline, but doesn't want to if it's not going to have the next contract.
''We absolutely can't go beyond Sept. 1. We absolutely can't,'' Sweitzer said. ''It's bad for you. It's bad for us.''
West Greenwich, R.I.-based GTECH is a leading supplier to lotteries, including those of 28 states.
GTECH plans to bid on the next contract - one that has been delayed about six months by the Arizona Lottery's decision in May to put the lottery's future on the state's Nov. 3 ballot. Voters approved Proposition 304 to keep the lottery alive for at least three years.
GTECH executives said their systems elsewhere are either Y2K compliant or will be, but that they had no economic incentive to update the Arizona system unless they win the new contract.
''If Sept. 1 comes and a new vendor needs more time, that is going to be an issue for the new vendor to deal with the lottery,'' GTECH spokesman Marc Palazzo. ''If we're selected in February, this won't be an issue.''
GTECH's current contract already was extended from Jan. 1 to June 30, but lottery officials successfully asked the company to extend it until Sept. 1. The Lottery Commission approved the extension Friday.
Executive Director Geoffrey Gonsher said the extra time will help promote competition by giving potential bidders more time to submit proposals and also providing more time for installation and testing of the new system.
That system will be Y2K-compliant, Gonsher said. ''It's not an expectation. It's a mandate.''
The request for bids specifies that interested companies agree to pay the lottery $700,000 a day if the new system is not ready on Sept. 2. That amount equals the lottery's average daily sales over the past three years.
''We want the (winning bidder) to complete the task on time,'' Gonsher said.
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