Wyoming lottery to reap estimated $20 million in first year of ticket sales

Jul 15, 2013, 7:27 pm (7 comments)

Wyoming Lottery

The Wyoming Lottery Board estimates it will get $20 million from ticket sales in the first year of the state's legal games of chance, which are now targeted to start February 2014.

The board Friday evening reviewed a preliminary budget that considered the $20 million figure, which was based on estimates the lottery industry provided the Wyoming Legislature, said Brian Scott Gamroth, lottery board chairman. The law that legalized lottery in Wyoming requires 50 percent of ticket sales be returned in winnings.

"Keep in mind again these are all approximate and this is not testament to any kind of schedule that we have developed or announced," Gamroth said.

The board is scrambling to adopt a budget, hire staff, find office space and decide whether Wyoming's lottery should be part of a multi-state lottery. The bill that legalized a lottery passed this spring and went into effect July 1.

While the lotto board on Friday discussed hiring a CEO, they were silent about compensation, except to say they were willing to offer a signing bonus.

Gamroth later said that the salary was decided in an executive session but is not yet public.

It likely won't be $700,000, as Rebecca Hargrove, CEO of the Tennessee Lottery told the board on Tuesday that they may have to pay.

"That's awfully high," Gamroth said after Friday's board meeting.

Hargrove on Tuesday said the range of $100,000 to $175,000 that the lotto board was rumored to be considering was too low. She said a candidate who is currently working elsewhere would not consider such a low salary.

At Friday's meeting, board members discussed 15 attributes they want the future CEO of Wyoming lottery to possess.

"This is again as opposed to having a search group out there," Gamroth said. "We are the search group, and these are the attributes we are looking for in a CEO coming in to run a Wyoming state lottery."

Attributes included team-building, business knowledge, composure, a customer focus, integrity, trust, values, innovation, listening skills, negotiating, management leadership and presentation skills.

Of the 15 attributes, the board will decide 10 that are most important. Those 10 will either be described in the CEO job advertisement or will otherwise be used by the board in interviews.

Board members are drafting a job description that they will post on industry website lotteryinsider.com.

The website "will be an opportunity to get in front of people in the industry," said Barry Sims of Cheyenne, a former head of Taco John's International. "They have a pretty good clearinghouse of jobs in the gaming and lottery business."

"We could easily have a job description and an advertisement put together at the end of next week," Gamroth said.

The lottery board would like to have a CEO hired in the next two or three months.

The board discussed joining a multi-state lottery. Some lottery groups are national and some run games in a few states. No decisions were made on whether to join a multi-state lottery and which one to join.

"As we take a look at multi-state lotteries, you have greater payouts," Gamroth said, using a recent $600 million Powerball winner as an example.

"A Wyoming state lottery, developed for and by Wyoming, it would take years for that to get to a $600 million level."

The only decision made during Friday's meeting was that the lottery board will begin weekly telephone conferences from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesdays.

In the preliminary budget, Gerry Marburger, a board member and certified public accountant from Riverton, considered six employees, but board members said that in North Dakota, a nearby state with a similar population, there are eight employees working for the state's lottery.

The lottery board wants to acquire short-term office space. In Cheyenne, it will likely have to pay $5,000 a month for a 3,500-square-foot office for eight employees, a small conference room and reception area, Sims said.

Until ticket sales can roll into Wyoming lottery coffers, the lottery board needs some cash to operate. They want to take out a short-term loan, possibly $500,000 to $750,000, from a Wyoming-based bank.

"We're looking at six months' financing," Sims said.

Board members commented that several Wyoming banks expressed interest in lending the money.

The loan will probably be secured by a promise to future revenues, Sims said.

The board has to assemble paperwork and distribute it to the banks next week.

"In less than 30 days, we'll have some financing in place," he said.

Star-Tribune

Comments

Todd's avatarTodd

Unfortunately I think Ms. Hargrove has lost all perspective. To make a recommendation to the new Wyoming Lottery that they should spend $700,000 a year on their CEO is ludicrous in the extreme.

Please don't make the mistake of thinking that I'm saying that innovative and greatly-achieving captains of industry should not get huge salaries. Indeed, I think they should.

But the Wyoming Lottery Director? I think they should hire an excellent manager who excels at startups and efficiency. They should not be looking to hire the CEO of General Electric for ungodly sums.

Especially considering the mandate for the new lottery: to oversee various multi-state games in the state. Wyoming will not become the next gambling mecca, nor should they hire a CEO who tries to make it into such.

I think the new Wyoming Lottery board is doing the right thing by inviting various lottery executives to talk about their experiences. They should listen to everyone who will show up. Hopefully the folks on the board are well-grounded enough to distill the relevant and important advice from that which will be counter-productive or even destructive.

psykomo's avatarpsykomo

Puke

   Maby D Wyoming Lottery board should call D

"TNT">>>>they know helleva moe bout D

lottery & how 2 run 4^^^^^$$$$^^^^^

                       Jester LaughJack-in-the-BoxJester Laugh

                                                            (they R outta Jersey)

noise-gate

Quote: Originally posted by Todd on Jul 15, 2013

Unfortunately I think Ms. Hargrove has lost all perspective. To make a recommendation to the new Wyoming Lottery that they should spend $700,000 a year on their CEO is ludicrous in the extreme.

Please don't make the mistake of thinking that I'm saying that innovative and greatly-achieving captains of industry should not get huge salaries. Indeed, I think they should.

But the Wyoming Lottery Director? I think they should hire an excellent manager who excels at startups and efficiency. They should not be looking to hire the CEO of General Electric for ungodly sums.

Especially considering the mandate for the new lottery: to oversee various multi-state games in the state. Wyoming will not become the next gambling mecca, nor should they hire a CEO who tries to make it into such.

I think the new Wyoming Lottery board is doing the right thing by inviting various lottery executives to talk about their experiences. They should listen to everyone who will show up. Hopefully the folks on the board are well-grounded enough to distill the relevant and important advice from that which will be counter-productive or even destructive.

I agree, especially with Wyoming getting their feet wet for the first time.A greenhorn swimmer does not dive into the deep end of the pool when starting out.
Using the word " scrabbling" when talking about Money-  could spell a recipe for disaster. IMHO.

Corneliablyth

I for one have not won anything like even $500 and I have been playing for yrs on tickets and scratch and I play every week, I am live in Tullahoma,Tn and have not heard of anyone hitting anything,so I know we are not getting half of what is being played so anything that Wyoming has a part of I will not buy and if it means to quit alltogether I will. I use to be able win a LITTLE every now and then before the lady took over that did run the Ga. Lottery. I am not the only one who is complaining , Someone may be getting rich, but for sure not the players here.     Cornelia

TnTicketlosers's avatarTnTicketlosers

I worked in Tulahoma for years.You might know my ex.Anyway,,,Happy Scratching there in your city.If you need me for anything just message me.

RJOh's avatarRJOh

Considering the $20M a year the state expect to generate is less than the cash the next winner of Ohio's Classic Lotto will recieve, $700K for a CEO to run its lottery does seem a bite unreasonable.

jamella724

They are just starting, they need to make a lot of adjustments to make it work. The players in their states will definitely support them.  I hope they will be able to generate more funds to support the education program of the states.

End of comments
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