maybe tennessee was the state they were really talking about

They need to spread the $$$ to us G.A players!!!!

Lawmakers fail to take into consideration those bonu$e$ were originally negotiated by none other than Paul-Hargrove whose track record toward the last of her tenure failed to merit her huge salary bonus she secured for herself.

Ms. DeFrancisco at a much lower salary than Paul-Hargrove has turned the Georgia Lottery around to a real performer .... players are happily spending money.   

Current Georgia Lottery integrity is reflected in sales performance lead by Ms. DeFrancisco.  Let them keep their merit bonuses .... they've well earned them.

I wish the article contained more information...I seem to remember everyone at the lottery, all the way down to the janitor, getting (or being eligible for) some sort of bonus. I don't know what Margaret is making total but she seems to have done a pretty good job down there.

$3 million is less than 1/10 of 1 percent of sales...compare with the average US Corporation and its a drop in the bucket. A lot of publicly traded firms go by an estimate that says the management team should be getting 10-20% of the net net as exec comp.

Still, $3 million could pay for a bunch of HOPE scholarships and all this kind press never helps a lottery. Maybe they should reset the base salaries and bonus schedule....

Paying for college is a great way to show the benefits of having a lottery. However, what usually happens, once a dedicated funding source is created like that, is the colleges start raising tuition and fees. That makes it tougher for the Lottery to "succeed" at its mission.

If memory serves me Ms. DeFrancisco came in at around $110,000 per year plus bonus, not sure if there has been an increase.

On the other hand Paul-Hargrove was raking in in excess of $600,000 per year salary +++ bonuses and was not the performer in any respect whatsoever that Ms. DeFrancisco has been.  Yeah, Becca set it up but ran it into the ground due to greed and no imagination.

As stated many times Ms. DeFrancisco has given back to players in the form of second chance drawings several times a year, contests, buy one get one free coupons, buy so many tickets get one free which were never ever done under Paul-Hargrove. 

thanks todd

      i believe there is something wrong with our lottery

If the $853M was the only funding provided by the GA lottery there's a whole lot more wrong than $3M in bonuses. With $3.4B in sales, the payout to the educational funds from the lottery would only be about 25% of sales. Given that the Fantasy 5 game has pari-mutuel payouts and the Cash3 and Cash4 games pay out 50% or slightly less, that leaves another $850M used for administrative expenses and contract costs. That seems rather high to me.

I don't know anything about Georgia, but not all games have equal payouts.  You'd have to look at what they return to the state overall.  For instance, some Scratchers games have higher prize structures than other types of games.  It's not unlike the casino, where the slots sometimes return 90% as prizes and the house makes it up on table games.  They probably release information on the cost of administration as a percentage of sales. 

So whats the beef with the lawmakers. Madd because they are not on the end of the receiving stick. Ask the lawmakers how much extra they get above their salary to be on committes and all the other perks.

It,s all right here in a nutshell. And playing the lottery is voluntary on the citizens.

She also said it's not fair to compare the lottery to state agencies, because it raises all the money it spends rather than relying on annual appropriations from the state.

So how do lawmakers fund their fancy budget and programs.

Raise taxes