Indiana lottery rigger faces 50-year penalty
William C. Foreman could spend 50 years in state prison if he's convicted of stealing secrets from the Hoosier Lottery in an effort to rig a million-dollar scratch-off game.But the former lottery security official's trial has been delayed so he can challenge the constitutionality of the nation's harshest penalty for breaching lottery security.The state's top lottery official, Esther Q. Schneider, favors the stiff penalty to deter inside jobs that threaten public confidence in the Hoosier Lottery ...
Jan 30, 2006, 8:57 am - - Lottery News forum
Interim Texas Lottery Director Hired
One of the original commissioners to oversee the Texas lottery was called back to service Friday, this time to act as the temporary executive director of the troubled agency because officials have been unable to find someone to permanently fill the job, which has been open for six months.Anthony Sadberry, a Houston lawyer who gave up his private practice two months ago to become an assistant Texas attorney general, will take over the day-to-day operation of the lottery on Tuesday. Unlike his pas ...
Jan 16, 2006, 6:44 am - - Lottery News forum
2005 a trying year for Texas Lottery chairman
Tom Clowe says he was never much of a gambling man, but he was willing to take his chances when he asked Gov. George W. Bush in 1998 to give him an opportunity to serve the state in a volunteer capacity. I said to Governor Bush: I'm ready to do public service now. Give me the worst job that you've got,' Clowe recalled in a recent interview. And, man, he did! Bush appointed Clowe in November 1998 to the board that oversees the Texas Lottery Commission, which was still reeling from a string of ...
Jan 2, 2006, 7:42 am - - Lottery News forum
Heflin won't take Texas Lottery director job
Former state Rep. Talmadge Heflin ended his flirtation with becoming director of the Texas lottery Thursday and decided instead to file for the House district in Houston that he lost by a scant 16 votes in 2004. I had made the decision to run for the House about three weeks ago, but I put it off after being asked to apply for the lottery position, said Heflin, a 22-year legislative veteran who headed the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee before being upset by Democratic newcomer Hub ...
Dec 16, 2005, 6:37 am - - Lottery News forum
Texas Lottery Commission chair betting on future
When word spread in June that the Texas Lottery Commission approved jackpots it couldn't afford to make, chairman C. Tom Clowe Jr.'s term on the commission had officially expired months earlier.The retired Waco businessman who launched his career in trucking and has spent 51 years of marriage living in 34 different towns faced one last duty before fully returning to retirement: overseeing the troubled agency's bid to win back public trust.Beginning the eighth year of his now open-ended term, Clo ...
Nov 30, 2005, 12:30 pm - - Lottery News forum
Texas Lottery under the microscope in hearings
Texas Lottery officials were summoned Tuesday to testify before a legislative committee for the second time in five months, this time over allegations of mismanagement brought by a lottery systems analyst who was fired the same day the Houston Chronicle reported his concerns.Shelton Charles, who oversaw much of the lottery's technical operations before his firing Friday, planned to testify Monday at a hearing of the House Licensing and Regulation Committee, which oversees the lottery.The committ ...
Nov 9, 2005, 7:12 am - - Lottery News forum
Korean lottery embroiled in scandal
The state-run lottery business in Korea is under investigation over two separate scandals involving charging high commission fees and suspicions that the operator manipulated winning averages to attract customers.Lawmakers demanded yesterday that the Board of Audit and Inspection make public the result of its inspection of the process of the commission rate has been determined.Since last year, the nation's audit agency has been investigating suspicions that the Korea Lottery System, the lottery ...
Sep 26, 2005, 7:27 am - - Lottery News forum
GTECH makes political donation days after gambling contract awarded
Six days after winning a state contract, the company Pennsylvania chose to run its computer system for slot machines gave $50,000 to a national nonprofit that raises money for Democratic governors including Gov. Ed Rendell, the group's finance chair.GTECH, a Rhode Island lottery company, has given $481,267 to the Democratic Governors' Association since 2000, according to a political watchdog group. But the payment March 8 had nothing to do with the $6.3 million a year contract announced by the ...
Sep 22, 2005, 11:18 am - - Lottery News forum
Texas Lottery critic applies for Director position
Dawn Nettles, the Garland woman who has made criticizing the troubled Texas Lottery Commission a full-time job in recent years, is applying for the job of running the state agency. My goal is to clean up the lottery, run it honestly and still make money for the state, Nettles said this morning. I'm a trouble-shooter, and I know the lottery players. Nettles, who publishes the online Lotto Report, was first to alert the Texas Attorney General's Office that then-Executive Director Reagan Greer ha ...
Sep 12, 2005, 6:41 pm - - Lottery News forum
Texas Lottery considering guaranteed jackpots
Texas Lottery officials are considering guaranteed jackpots to help avoid inflated estimates like the one in June that prompted a consumer complaint to the state attorney general and cost the agency director his job.New jackpot prize guidelines proposed Monday include a guarantee the winner collect either the advertised amount or the amount calculated by sales, whichever is greater. The guarantees would apply to jackpots paid with the 25-year annuity, not to winners who choose the immediate cash ...
Aug 16, 2005, 6:53 am - - Lottery News forum