Lottery Firm Linked to Robbins Case : Corruption inquiry: GTECH cited as source of $13,500 in campaign donations characterized as bribes in charges.

SACRAMENTO —  The company that holds an exclusive, multimillion-dollar computer contract with the state lottery was the source of $13,500 in campaign contributions that are characterized as bribes in federal charges brought against former state Sen. Alan Robbins, The Times has learned.

The GTECH Corp., which operates the lottery’s on-line games including Lotto and Decco, made payments to Robbins’ campaign fund of $6,500 and $7,000 in October of 1986, shortly after a heated battle over a lottery bill of direct interest to GTECH and its lobbyist, Clayton R. Jackson. According to sources familiar with the investigation, these were the transactions referred to in charges against Robbins.

A spokesman for GTECH said the company was “puzzled” that it was being linked to the Robbins investigation because “we do not now have nor have we had any relationship with this senator.”

Craig Watson, the Rhode Island company’s vice president for marketing, said political contributions were made by the company to Robbins but solely at the recommendation of lobbyist Jackson.

“We did not offer or pay a bribe to Sen. Robbins,” he said emphatically.

Jackson, whose offices were raided by FBI agents on Tuesday, could not be reached for comment. But his attorney, Donald Heller, said that “it’s quite clear that he is a target” of the federal investigators who were pursuing Robbins.

U.S. Attorney George O’Connell has said he expects to file charges against others in the investigation but has refused to say who else might be facing indictment in the ongoing, 5-year-old corruption probe.

GTECH is in a particularly vulnerable position because it could be disqualified from lottery contracts if it is implicated in a criminal charge.

The company has held a contract with the lottery since March, 1986, to provide a computer network that processes wagers for all on-line games. In that five-year period, the state has paid the company $180 million, according to lottery officials.

As part of his agreement with prosecutors announced Tuesday, Robbins has admitted that the GTECH contributions constituted a bribe. Sources told The Times on Thursday that investigators also are looking at the GTECH contributions as part of the investigation of Jackson.

One of Sacramento’s most influential lobbyists--whose firm takes in more money than any other in the state capital--Jackson represented companies and organizations with an interest in all three bills discussed in the federal bribery-related charges against Robbins.

Robbins has agreed to plead guilty to one count of racketeering and one count of income tax fraud for failing to report $52,800 on his 1988 returns. The racketeering count charges him with three separate acts of accepting bribes in return for action on bills before the Legislature.

One of those charges involves a 1985 lottery bill by Assemblyman Rusty Areias (D-Los Banos). His bill would have made it a felony for lottery contractors to manufacture game tickets outside of California.

At the time, there was only one company that would have qualified: Scientific Games Inc. of Atlanta, which had built a ticket-printing plant in Areias’ district.

Areias said his measure was designed only to boost local employment, and was not written to give Scientific Games a competitive edge. But two of the company’s rivals from Georgia and New Jersey cried foul and launched a lobbying campaign to defeat the measure.

Despite the opposition, the bill passed its first crucial test when it cleared the Senate Governmental Organization Committee by a 6-5 vote in August, 1985. Robbins, a member of the committee, voted for the bill.

Moreover, the bill eventually died on the Senate floor with Robbins again voting for the measure. It is not clear just how Robbins assisted GTECH. The firm did not publicly oppose or support the measure, but at the time, GTECH was considering entering the instant games business.

Areias said that he could not recall that Robbins ever contacted him about the bill. Areias complained that “a legitimate bill that bears my name has been caught up in this mess.”

Two other bills are mentioned in connection with violations of state bribery statutes in the racketeering charge against Robbins.

One of those measures is a 1985 bill backed by the California Assn. of Thrift and Loan Companies, another client of lobbyist Jackson.

The bill, carried by Robbins himself, was enacted into law. It removed the state insurance commissioner’s ability to regulate consumer credit insurance--policies that pay off debts when an individual becomes disabled or dies.

The association contributed $14,500 to Robbins’ campaign committees between 1985 and 1987, records show.

A representative for the association could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The other bribery charge against Robbins involves a 1986 bill by former Assemblywoman Jean Duffy (D-Sacramento). That measure would have restricted the sales of alcoholic beverages at gasoline stations, but the bill died in the Assembly before reaching the Senate.

At the time, documents show, Jackson was the lobbyist for the Food and Fuel Retailers for Economic Equity, which opposed the measure.

The group donated $4,000 to Robbins’ campaign coffers that year, according to the organization’s spending reports. It is not clear what role Robbins may have played in the legislation.

Rick Usher, who chaired the group, declared “categorically that none of our contributions were made in exchange for any action by a legislator.”

Times staff writers Ralph Frammolino, Mark Gladstone and Daniel M. Weintraub contributed to this story.