A Clay County judge who presided over the high-profile murder trial of nurse Orville Lynn Majors will become Indiana's next gambling regulator and the point person in a state review of Donald Trump's plans for the French Lick casino.

Gov. Mitch Daniels on Thursday appointed Ernest E. Yelton, who spent 25 years on the Clay Circuit Court bench, as executive director of the Indiana Gaming Commission. One of Yelton's first tasks will be to review the commission's split decision in July to award the state's 11th casino to Trump's casino company, which is in bankruptcy reorganization.

Daniels also filled the state's other high-profile gambling job by selecting a marketing executive and political fund-raiser to lead the State Lottery Commission. Esther Q. Schneider, 40, who directed marketing at a Las Vegas casino and once ran for Congress in Nevada, will lead the agency.

Daniels said one of her first tasks as she replaces Director Jack Ross will be to restore integrity to the lottery, which is recovering from a scandal involving a rigged $1 million scratch-off ticket game.

"I would like to remove that cloud," she said.

She has experience in rooting out scandal. In 2003, when she became executive director of the Indiana Senate Majority Campaign Committee, she began questioning the accounting and management practices of the former director. She ordered an audit, and now the former leader, Brad Hiller, is under criminal investigation.

"You need to go in and look at the books -- look at everything from the top down," Schneider said.

At the Gaming Commission, Yelton also will lead his own comprehensive review -- of the finances of Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts, and whether the company can build and operate the French Lick casino.

Daniels continued to express concern Thursday about the Trump casino company's finances.

"I want him to look at it promptly," Daniels said, adding that he doesn't want to delay the process of bringing a casino to economically depressed Orange County. "There are still questions about the impact of the bankruptcy."

Yelton, who said he doesn't know many of the project's details yet, echoed those concerns Thursday.

"If you enter into a very important contract and the bidder immediately goes into bankruptcy, to me that's a red flag," said Yelton, who resigned from the bench Thursday.

Yelton, who has gambled at Casino Aztar in Evansville, will be in charge of regulating Indiana's 10 riverboats. He replaces Glenn Lawrence.