By Tony Romeo

HARRUSBURG, Pa. (CBS) — The Corbett administration and a British company bidding to manage the Pennsylvania Lottery have once again extended the deadline to consummate a deal as the governor’s office continues to mull its next step after being blocked by the state attorney general.

Camelot Global Services has extended the life of its bid to manage the Lottery several times now.  This is, in fact, already the second time that Camelot has extended its bid just since attorney general Kathleen Kane determined that a contract with the state to run the lottery would violate the Pennsylvania constitution (see related story).

Pennsylvania revenue department spokeswoman Elizabeth Brassell says this time, the bid has been extended to March 18th, two days past the deadline for one of the administration’s options, which is a court appeal of the attorney general’s ruling.

“We have 30 days from the date that she denied the contract to appeal,” Brassell tells KYW Newsradio, so this extension allows both parties some additional time to continue considering [a] strategic next step.”

Meantime, with both sides acknowledging that a contract won’t be executed in the short term, the Commonwealth has returned a $50-million bid security payment to Camelot.