A minority-owned company from Lancaster County is the winner of the IGT sweepstakes, negotiating the rights to distribute for America's largest slot machine manufacturer.

PAP Security Printing Inc., owned by Mike Robinson, will be the sole distributor for International Game Technologies, which builds about two-thirds of the slot machines in operation.

That means Mr. Robinson, of Lititz, has secured what is presumably the most lucrative of the distributorship contracts available.

Pennsylvania's 2004 gambling expansion law forbids slots-makers from selling their products directly to casinos -- instead, they must sell to a Pennsylvania distributor, who will then resell the slot machines to Pennsylvania casinos.

The distributor companies -- some already in place, some created from scratch by former politicians -- must compete against each other to secure distributing rights from the various manufacturers.

Mr. Robinson's contract would seem to be a victory for those who hoped the peculiar "middleman" provision of the 2004 slots law would benefit Pennsylvania companies and provide jobs in the state, especially for minorities. Critics of the provision say the law will provide a way for well-connected politicians to make an easy buck.

But those former politicians lost out to Mr. Robinson, by all accounts a self-made small business owner, who left his job at Xerox and mortgaged his home to finance his upstart printing company.

Soon, he won a contract to print tickets for the Pennsylvania Lottery, and later won contracts to print Minnesota lottery tickets and ATM receipt tapes, according to the Central Penn Business Journal. His 18-year-old company, headquartered in Lancaster's Greenfield Corporate Center, specializes in high-security products for banks and lotteries. They also service printing equipment.

That he beat out better-known politicians does not suggest Mr. Robinson has no political connections. In 1998, he contributed $10,000 toward the re-election of then-Gov. Tom Ridge. He's also contributed to Reps. Gibson Armstrong and Mike Sturla, as well as the House Republican Campaign Committee.