Arkansas Lottery Commission gathers for study retreat

Members of the Arkansas Lottery Commission are gathering May 14-15 at Petit Jean to hear from lottery experts from Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, according to a report from Roby Brock at TalkBusiness.net.

All four states were influential in shaping Arkansas’ lottery legislation from a variety of perspectives ranging from their ties to higher education to the infancy of their start-up.

At the two-day retreat starting Thursday, lottery commissioners will hear from Margaret DeFrancisco, president and CEO of the Georgia Lottery, and Ernie Passailaigue, executive director of the South Carolina Lottery.

Passailaigue (pronounced Pass’-a-laig) is the past president of the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries, a lottery trade organization. He came to a retreat in January to assist Arkansas lawmakers in their efforts to shape legislation for the new state lottery law.

Passailaigue told Talk Business he’s not sure what questions he may field from commissioners though he’ll try to answer all inquiries “with honest answers.”

“I’m chairman of the Powerball, so maybe they’ll ask me what the winning numbers are going to be,” he said in a thick South Carolina drawl.

A former state legislator, Passailaigue led that state’s lottery in 2001 and 2002 through the start-up process and has served as its first and only director. Arkansas’ start-up will likely have many similarities, he said. He has provided commissioners with a white paper outlining his initial thoughts for consideration.

“The most important decision they’re going to make is employing an executive director,” he said.  “And that person is going to select the staff.”

Passailaigue’s first hire when he assumed his South Carolina post was to hire a human resources director to deal with the 5,000 job applications that flooded the office. He warned that political influence will try to creep into the job selection process, too, as elected officials ask for consideration of constituents.

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Gov. Mike Beebe named George Hammons of Pine Bluff, Dianne Lamberth of Batesville, and Ben Pickard of Beebe to the slots.

State Senate President Bob Johnson named former congressman, university president and state Supreme Court justice Ray Thornton, Morrilton businesswoman Patty Shipp and Little Rock lawyer Derrick Smith.

Speaker of the House Robbie Wills’ appointments include Joe White of Conway, Mike Malone of Fayetteville, and Dr. Susan Ward-Jones of Marion. White is a businessman in the Conway area, Malone heads the Northwest Arkansas Council, and Jones is CEO of the East Arkansas Family Health Center in West Memphis.

Link here for the full report from TalkBusiness.net.