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Arkansas Lottery partners with grocery chain on vending machinesNews Story
An Ohio-based grocery store chain has signed a contract with the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery to sell lottery tickets through vending machines. Lottery Director Ernie Passailaigue signed the agreement April 11 after the House Rules Committee declined to recommend passage of a Senate-approved bill that would bar the lottery from using the machines. The Arkansas lottery began selling tickets through the machines on Feb. 3 at a Love's Travel Stop in North Little Rock, and the machines have si
Apr 25, 2011, 8:03 am - Lottery News

N.M. lottery celebrates anniversary, tackles challengesNews Story
Amid revenue shortfall, officials launch new campaign to boost ticket sales New Mexico Lottery officials this month are celebrating the 15th birthday of the lottery program with a special anniversary scratcher ticket and a new ad campaign. Amid a revenue shortfall and the possibility that the lottery's scholarship money could be out of cash by 2014, the celebration is bittersweet. This is a new era for us because we don't know how many people are going to play the lottery from now on,
Apr 25, 2011, 7:27 am - Lottery News

Arkansas Lottery conducts first state raffleNews Story
By Todd Northrop Lesson learned: if you want to sell-out raffle lottery tickets, set (and hold to) an end date. In what started as one of the longest raffle ticket sales periods in recent memory, and ended in a flurry of last-minute sales, the Arkansas Lottery officially concluded its first-ever raffle today. At the end of the day, there are two freshly-minted millionaires, and over a thousand winners of $1,000 and $100 prizes. The two winning $1 million numbers were 199692 and 40926
Apr 7, 2011, 2:32 pm - Lottery News

Arkansas Lottery anticipates drop in revenue next yearNews Story
Delays participation in Decades of Dollars game The Arkansas Lottery Commission approved a new budget Wednesday that takes into account expected reductions in revenue. Under the budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, operating revenue would be $459 million, compared to $464 million for the current fiscal year, with $100 million in net proceeds, down from $105 million. Lottery Director Ernie Passailaigue said the budget for the upcoming year is based on actual revenue. The com
Mar 11, 2011, 10:44 am - Lottery News

Ark. Lottery panel votes for changes to unclaimed prize moneyNews Story
The legislative Lottery Oversight Committee voted today to recommend a fix for a 2010 law change that Arkansas lottery officials say hampers their ability to maximize ticket sales. During last year's fiscal session, the Legislature changed the state lottery law to add unclaimed prize money to net profits. Lottery Director Ernie Passailaigue said after the session that the change meant the lottery could not use some of the unclaimed money on efforts to boost prizes and sales in response to
Feb 16, 2011, 10:50 pm - Lottery News

N.M. acts to save Lottery scholarship fundNews Story
A lottery-financed college scholarship program is running out of money, and lawmakers are looking for a fix that won't hamper efforts to encourage young New Mexicans to attend universities and colleges in the state. The scholarship fund could be depleted by 2014 if nothing is done in the Legislature this session and tuition rates continue to rise sharply, according to the latest state projections. The Senate Education Committee unanimously endorsed a measure Wednesday that would shore up t
Feb 11, 2011, 9:30 am - Lottery News

Arkansas Lottery sets raffle draw dateNews Story
Sales to end April 6th; drawing the next day By Todd Northrop At long last, the Arkansas Lottery has fixed the drawing date for its Arkansas Million Dollar Raffle. The Raffle game, which the lottery claims to have the best odds of a $1,000,000 win in Arkansas Scholarship Lottery history, will sell its last ticket on Wednesday, April 6. The drawing will be held the following day, Apr. 7. The Raffle will pay off big two ticket numbers will be drawn to win $1,000,000. Also, there will b
Feb 1, 2011, 1:18 pm - Lottery News

N.M. Lottery dog contest has entrants howling over voting cheatsNews Story
By Todd Northrop The New Mexico was forced to put their Lucky Dog Photo Contest on a leash yesterday when it was determined that some entrants were piling on extra votes. Between Jan. 4 and Jan. 23, dog owners were able to submit photos of their dogs to the New Mexico Lottery. Entry was free, and the top 25 photos, based on public voting, will be finalists. The New Mexico Lottery will select six of those finalists to appear on a new line of scratch card tickets. The Lucky Dog game, sche
Jan 26, 2011, 5:42 pm - Lottery News

Tenn. Lottery scholarships underfundedNews Story
The Tennessee Lottery games aren't generating enough money to pay for all of the Hope Scholarships. Now, lawmakers are putting options together that could make it tougher for students to get a scholarship in the future. More students than ever are eligible to receive the annual $4,000 Hope Scholarship. A special task force has been analyzing the problem for the last year. Lawmakers say they don't want to impact any current scholarships and break promises to students. That's part of their
Jan 19, 2011, 7:44 am - Lottery News

Arkansas lottery director up for review for first timeNews Story
The director of the Arkansas Lottery, who oversaw its successful launch but has had a series of high-profile flubs, will receive his first employee evaluation Wednesday when the Arkansas Lottery Commission. Commission chairman Dianne Lamberth said the panel will go into executive session to discuss Ernie Passailaigue's performance, which has been highlighted by the scholarships given to students last fall but darkened by a critical audit and other problems. The commission met in closed ses
Jan 10, 2011, 8:14 am - Lottery News