New Maryland Lottery Director appointed

Apr 26, 2010, 7:55 am (14 comments)

Maryland Lottery

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley Friday announced the appointment of Stephen L. Martino as director of the Maryland State Lottery Agency.

The Lottery's director is appointed by the Governor with Senate advice and consent.

"I am proud to appoint Mr. Martino to head the Maryland Lottery," said Governor O'Malley. "Mr. Martino brings a wealth of expertise in the racing and gaming industry, as well as legal knowledge and experience. I am confident that Mr. Martino will oversee the operations of the Maryland Lottery Agency in the State of Maryland with the utmost integrity and with the best interest of the citizens of Maryland in mind."

"I am honored to have been asked by Governor O'Malley to serve as the Director of the Maryland Lottery Agency," said Martino. "I am looking forward to serving the people of Maryland and ensuring that our work is done in a transparent, thorough and ethical way."

Martino comes to the Maryland lottery, which will regulate slots once the casinos are built, after developing regulatory framework for casino gaming in Kansas, which included the opening of the first state-owned casino in the country.

"Hopefully what I can do is bring the experience that I developed somewhere else and help Maryland maybe miss some of the land mines that we stepped on in Kansas," Martino said.

In 2007, Kansas voters approved funding for four state-owned casinos. But by April 2009, the Boot Hill Casino in Dodge City was the only one of four locations in which construction was moving forward. But even then, its operators were worried about not being able to get machines until Martino issued a directive allowing a company to get a temporary permit to sell in Kansas.

The casino opened in November, and three months later Martino said that the casino's January revenue totaled more than $3.1 million, with 85 percent from slots and 15 percent from table games. The state's share that month was $689,129.

Martino said last week that Maryland's struggle to get slots up and running bears some resemblances to his experience with Kansas.

"What's similar for Kansas and Maryland's situation is you can't control the economy," he said. "More than anything else, both states have not developed as quickly as they might have liked, and the economy has really been the factor that caused the greatest amount of problems."

In Maryland, voters approved five locations for slots parlors in the November 2008 election. The following spring, the state only received bids for four of the five locations, and none of the bids originally projected installing the maximum number of slots machines allowed at their sites.

The first full-service slots parlor is now slated to open this fall in Cecil County — roughly two years after voters approved the gaming. Ocean Downs Racetrack on the Eastern Shore, which has been hit with construction delays, hopes to have a temporary slots site built by this summer.

The new lottery director also said he is not overlooking the state lottery's main source of revenue.

"I'm not coming in and just focusing on the slots thing, but obviously keeping my eye cast on the entire menu of activity here," he said. "That's an extremely important part and generates far more revenue."

Martino has already moved to Maryland after stepping down from his position in Kansas more than three weeks ago to join his family in Silver Spring. His wife, Beth, took a job this year as the spokeswoman for the federal Food and Drug Administration and moved then with their two children.

Martino stayed behind to sell their house and also to give Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson enough time to appoint an interim director.

Before joining the Kansas gaming commission Martino was an attorney in private practice and previously worked at the Kansas Department of Insurance, the Kansas Legislature and as a newspaper editor in Louisville.

He replaces former Maryland lottery director Buddy Roogow, who left the position last year and is now head of the D.C. Lottery.

News story photo(Click to display in gallery)

Lottery Post Staff

Comments

destined2bgr8's avatardestined2bgr8

Hopefully he can get the drawing results posted in a timely manner and make the payout available on their website.  Let's see what he will accomplish.   Maybe he can keep some of the money in the state that is going to Delaware and West Virginia casinos.

jrosina's avatarjrosina

Quote: Originally posted by destined2bgr8 on Apr 26, 2010

Hopefully he can get the drawing results posted in a timely manner and make the payout available on their website.  Let's see what he will accomplish.   Maybe he can keep some of the money in the state that is going to Delaware and West Virginia casinos.

I like His open Face, He should be given a chance to see what he is going to do. I wish him GOD'S favor.

destined2bgr8's avatardestined2bgr8

Quote: Originally posted by jrosina on Apr 26, 2010

I like His open Face, He should be given a chance to see what he is going to do. I wish him GOD'S favor.

As a Marylander, I'm certainly going to remain positive and hang in there with him.  He too is in my prayers for his highest good as well as all of my LP family members.

Litebets27's avatarLitebets27

Quote: Originally posted by destined2bgr8 on Apr 26, 2010

Hopefully he can get the drawing results posted in a timely manner and make the payout available on their website.  Let's see what he will accomplish.   Maybe he can keep some of the money in the state that is going to Delaware and West Virginia casinos.

I Agree!  Nothing like paying out good money, only to have to guess when the drawing results will show up online. And, don't try to call on the phone for results, your redialing for hours.

I can't understand how much the MDSL doesn't care about customer satisfaction. I guess they believ they have a product that is so addictive that the agency will continue to earn big bucks no matter how they treat us...

OH SO TRUE!!!

destined2bgr8's avatardestined2bgr8

Quote: Originally posted by Litebets27 on Apr 26, 2010

I Agree!  Nothing like paying out good money, only to have to guess when the drawing results will show up online. And, don't try to call on the phone for results, your redialing for hours.

I can't understand how much the MDSL doesn't care about customer satisfaction. I guess they believ they have a product that is so addictive that the agency will continue to earn big bucks no matter how they treat us...

OH SO TRUE!!!

Litebets, they need to realize that many of us have the option of playing in DC and/or VA.  Lost revenue may wake them up to the idea of providing better customer service however, I'm going to be patient and think positive.

sully16's avatarsully16

Good luck to you all in Maryland , hope your new guy treats you right.

four4me

Quote: Originally posted by Litebets27 on Apr 26, 2010

I Agree!  Nothing like paying out good money, only to have to guess when the drawing results will show up online. And, don't try to call on the phone for results, your redialing for hours.

I can't understand how much the MDSL doesn't care about customer satisfaction. I guess they believ they have a product that is so addictive that the agency will continue to earn big bucks no matter how they treat us...

OH SO TRUE!!!

Litebets you know I'm on top of these things with the drawings. I contacted them and they said there having some issues with their web-page and are working on it. Apparently it's the weekends that there having the most problems with updating the web-page and phone system. This leads me to wonder if the regular person who dose the job is either on vacation lost their position or is out sick.

On most days the midday and evening drawings numbers are posted here on lottery post within 8 to 10 minutes after the drawing takes place. As well as their homepage at mdlottery. Sometimes Maryland is actually the first drawing to appear here on lottery post for the midday drawing as all other drawing are slower to report.

If you visit the Maryland web-page and still see yesterdays drawings or the previous drawing try refreshing the page.

You might think the people in charge of reporting the numbers are making big bucks but they are probably among the lowest paid workers there.

All lottery employees have had to take pay cuts from what i have been told.

rdgrnr's avatarrdgrnr

Quote: Originally posted by jrosina on Apr 26, 2010

I like His open Face, He should be given a chance to see what he is going to do. I wish him GOD'S favor.

What do you mean you like his Open Face, Rosie? Did he used to have a resternt somewheres?

Was it a open face roast beef with smashed taters and gravy? I like them.

Todd's avatarTodd

Quote: Originally posted by destined2bgr8 on Apr 26, 2010

Hopefully he can get the drawing results posted in a timely manner and make the payout available on their website.  Let's see what he will accomplish.   Maybe he can keep some of the money in the state that is going to Delaware and West Virginia casinos.

I Agree!

I sincerely hope he places emphasis on the lottery's Web site and eliminating publishing delays and errors.

tiggs95's avatartiggs95

Quote: Originally posted by rdgrnr on Apr 27, 2010

What do you mean you like his Open Face, Rosie? Did he used to have a resternt somewheres?

Was it a open face roast beef with smashed taters and gravy? I like them.

ridge pal what's a resternet?..Is that like an internet resthome?..

jrosina's avatarjrosina

Quote: Originally posted by rdgrnr on Apr 27, 2010

What do you mean you like his Open Face, Rosie? Did he used to have a resternt somewheres?

Was it a open face roast beef with smashed taters and gravy? I like them.

HaHAhA...LoL..rd, I meant he appears to be an open and honest man!!!

 to me his face shows open Honesty.

However, Like everything in Life, I could be wrong about the choir boy face!!

Litebets27's avatarLitebets27

Quote: Originally posted by four4me on Apr 27, 2010

Litebets you know I'm on top of these things with the drawings. I contacted them and they said there having some issues with their web-page and are working on it. Apparently it's the weekends that there having the most problems with updating the web-page and phone system. This leads me to wonder if the regular person who dose the job is either on vacation lost their position or is out sick.

On most days the midday and evening drawings numbers are posted here on lottery post within 8 to 10 minutes after the drawing takes place. As well as their homepage at mdlottery. Sometimes Maryland is actually the first drawing to appear here on lottery post for the midday drawing as all other drawing are slower to report.

If you visit the Maryland web-page and still see yesterdays drawings or the previous drawing try refreshing the page.

You might think the people in charge of reporting the numbers are making big bucks but they are probably among the lowest paid workers there.

All lottery employees have had to take pay cuts from what i have been told.

Four4me, I sometimes wait in the store where I purchase my lottery, until the results post on the LotteryPost,(which post before MDSL post), and give out the results to the store owners and whoever is still playing or comes in and want to know the results. The regulars know that I can pull up the results by 2005-2010 (8:05-8:10). They always say, I have the inside tip on the numbers. I've told them time and time again that it's LotteryPost.

When I spoke about all of the money that MDSL makes, it wasn't directed at the posters, office workers or those sales people that work on commission. I know they work pretty hard for their money. I was talking about the whole system's intake of our money. MDSL should have policies in place that the results should be on the website no later than 10 minutes after the games have been run. Does it really take a half hour to enter the results so that all can see or hear.

And I speak loosely about the lottery office workers working hard for their money. I once stood in the Montgomery Park office waiting to be waited on while the girls talked about some shopping or something unrelated to lottery. One finally came over took my ticket, made me wait awhile longer, just to come back minutes later to tell me their system was down and I needed to take my ticket to a super agent to cash. (I usually don't mind waiting, it gives me time to observe operations)

I hope the new commish will straighten things out.

Litebets27's avatarLitebets27

Thank you new Director! I have noticed the results are being posted in a more timely manner. We all really appreciate this.

I don't know how you can fix the telephone problem for those who cannot access the results online because of employers blocking lottery sites.

Litebets27's avatarLitebets27

Quote: Originally posted by Litebets27 on May 1, 2010

Thank you new Director! I have noticed the results are being posted in a more timely manner. We all really appreciate this.

I don't know how you can fix the telephone problem for those who cannot access the results online because of employers blocking lottery sites.

I spoke too soon....Thud

End of comments
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