West Virginia Lottery brings in $20M more than expected
The West Virginia Lottery beat its forecast by $20 million during the just-completed fiscal year, despite the recession and competition from neighboring Pennsylvania, agency officials announced Wednesday.
Sales reached $1.49 billion during the 12 months that ended June 30, or just over 1 percent more than expected.
State government's share of the resulting revenues topped $616.6 million, while West Virginia's counties and municipalities together reaped nearly $16 million.
But an overall ...
Jul 22, 2009, 6:09 pm - - Lottery News forum
Arkansas Lottery Commission hits panic button on salaries
High salaries doled out for top positions in Arkansas' state-run lottery program could sour legislators' relationship with the commission they created to oversee the games, Gov. Mike Beebe said Thursday.
The governor welcomed the Arkansas Lottery Commission's decision a day earlier to review salary offers of more than $80,000 made to future lottery hires. But the governor said he thought lawmakers were surprised that at least a half-dozen of the first employees hired to run the lottery got si ...
Jul 17, 2009, 10:05 am - - Lottery News forum
Kansas Lottery sales decline in 2009
Kansas Lottery sales were down 2.6 percent during the fiscal year that ended June 30, the state agency reported Wednesday.
Sales for the year finished at $230.5 million, down from $236.6 million during the 2008 fiscal year. The lottery's biggest drops were in its Super Kansas Cash and Keno products, which fell 15 percent and 9 percent, respectively.
Tough economic conditions have been a factor in decreased sales, as well as the lack of big jackpots in Powerball and Super Kansas Cash, said ...
Jul 17, 2009, 9:06 am - - Lottery News forum
N.C. Lottery posts record returns
Loosened restrictions on prizes boosts revenue to the state
The North Carolina Education Lottery may not be recession-proof, but it's posting financial returns that would be a long shot for almost any other business in this economic environment.
The lottery generated $1.29 billion in sales in the fiscal year that concluded at the end of June, according to unaudited figures provided by the commission that oversees the games. That's a 19 percent increase over the $1.08 billion in gross sales ...
Jul 17, 2009, 8:29 am - - Lottery News forum
Arkansas Lottery director hires core management staff
Outcry over high salaries; Director defends
Ernie Passailaigue, who started his job two weeks ago as executive director of the Arkansas Lottery Commission, has been steadily hiring employees to fill core management positions, while defending the high salaries he is giving the new staff.
Before the hiring commenced, a legislative committee signed off ealier this month on the newly hired lottery chief's plan to pay his top deputies more than $200,000 each.
Passailaigue asked legislators t ...
Jul 15, 2009, 11:53 am - - Lottery News forum
N.J. Lottery goes from zero to highest tax rate in the USA
Adding insult to injury, 11% taxes are retroactive back to Jan. 1
Local Mega Millions winner calls it Pathetic money grab , as feel-good story about workers' winning jackpot is transformed into an example of oppressive government that finds it easier to take from a few lucky winners than to stop wasteful government handouts and spending.
The limits of luck are becoming clear to Lynn Sellari, whose Cash 5 lottery ticket left her with a windfall of money in May.
Over the past few days, Se ...
Jul 2, 2009, 11:40 pm - - Lottery News forum
New Hampshire crushes lottery winners with new 10% tax
Two $1M winners rush to get prizes before taxes skyrocket
Will higher taxes have the wrong effect and reduce revenue to the state?
The day before a massive 10 percent state tax on lottery prizes went into effect in the Granite State, two winners claimed separate $1 million jackpots something never before witnessed by a 20-year veteran of the lottery.
Milford High School teacher John Kasparek, 42, of Brookline, took a lump sum cash payment of $650,000 before taxes after a NH Millionaire' ...
Jul 1, 2009, 8:11 pm - - Lottery News forum
Arkansas lottery director turns down $11,000 housing allowance
The incoming head of Arkansas' lottery, set to be one of the highest-paid lottery directors in the country, didn't take all the cash offered him.
Ernie Passailaigue's $324,000-a-year salary was just part of the deal when he was hired June 5. The Arkansas Lottery Commission chairman, Ray Thornton of Little Rock, also directed the state to pay $980 a month for a year $11,760 total for housing support for Passailaigue.
But Passailaigue turned it down. He said that during negotiations for the ...
Jun 25, 2009, 2:18 am - - Lottery News forum
Arkansas Lottery hires away S.C. director
New director is 3rd highest-paid in U.S.
The Arkansas Lottery Commission has hired Ernie Passailaigue, the director of the South Carolina lottery, to lead the formation of Arkansas' newly approved lottery program.
He will start the job July 1 and be paid a salary of $324,000. It's possible that lottery ticket sales could begin as early as October.
Passailaigue (pronounced Pass'-a-laig) is a past president of the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries, a lottery tra ...
Jun 18, 2009, 9:47 pm - - Lottery News forum
Study finds wealthy counties get most benefit from Indiana Lottery profits
When you play the Hoosier Lottery, the odds are against you. But if you're poor? Then, so is the system.
An Indianapolis Star review of the Hoosier Lottery has found that while lower-income players disproportionately fund the lottery, the state transfers lottery profits disproportionately to the wealthiest counties.
It's a quirk that seems to punish the very people the state counts on to fuel a revenue source that last year topped $217 million.
It's a sad state of affairs when state po ...
Jun 8, 2009, 8:36 am - - Lottery News forum
