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Lottery chief defends high salaries of executivesNews Story
Complaints will end once game is operational, CEO Paul saysTennessee Lottery CEO Rebecca Paul on Monday defended the high salaries going to lottery executives and predicted complaints, such as those voiced by a group of Republican legislators, will end when the lottery is up and running. I'm very comfortable that we have hired the best and the brightest to maximize dollars for scholarships, Paul told when asked about a letter to Gov. Phil Bredesen from 19 Republican state legislators.The letter
Oct 28, 2003, 3:50 am - Lottery News

5 proposals for equipment, services submitted for gamesNews Story
6 committee members only ones who will study informationTennessee lottery officials received five proposals yesterday to provide equipment and services for Tennessee lottery games and began to handle them in top-secret fashion.On and off over the next month to six weeks, a six-member evaluation committee of lottery executives will lock itself inside a room to study the proposals. The committee will be the only people who go in or out of that room, said lottery spokesman Will Pinkston.Each propo
Oct 28, 2003, 3:48 am - Lottery News

Officials choose lottery logo; firms put in contract bidsNews Story
Tennessee lottery officials Monday picked a new logo from 100 proposed designs and learned they will have just two bids to choose from for one major vendor contract and three for another.GTECH Inc. and Scientific Games International were the only two firms meeting Monday's deadline for submission of bids to operate the state lottery's online network, which installs machines for selling tickets to statewide and multistate lotteries.Three bids were received for sales of instant tickets, also kno
Oct 28, 2003, 3:45 am - Lottery News

Home-schooling advocates debate legality of lotteryNews Story
State Attorney General Paul Summers has been asked to rule if Tennessee's lottery-funded scholarship program is unconstitutional for making home-schooled students meet higher standards to receive a scholarship than formally educated students. State Rep. Glen Casada, R-College Grove, made the request Wednesday. He said requiring home-schooled students to score a minimum of 23 on their ACT to qualify while other students must score only a 19 is discriminatory and unfair. Proponents of a lottery di
Oct 24, 2003, 3:57 am - Lottery News

GOP chief criticizes lottery payNews Story
The chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party Tuesday criticized excessive salaries paid by the Tennessee Lottery Corp., money she said should go to education when the lottery starts next year. We are receiving a lot of feedback from Tennesseans across the state that are deeply disturbed by these huge salaries being given out before the first lottery ticket is sold, GOP Chairman Beth Harwell said in an E-mail message to Tennessee Republicans Tuesday. I am also concerned with the 'unspecified
Oct 22, 2003, 3:56 am - Lottery News

Tenn. Lottery coming to offbeat placesNews Story
Barbershops, restaurants, even the theater may get into ticket sellingTennesseans eating out, getting a haircut or maybe even buying Broadway tickets at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center will be able to pick up lottery tickets, too.The state lottery yesterday mailed applications to 3,600 retailers that include not only traditional outlets such as gas stations and grocery stores, but also quirky ones such as barbershops, restaurants and even TPAC. I'm trying to figure out another way to produc
Oct 22, 2003, 3:52 am - Lottery News

Paul's lottery past: rocky beginnings, happier endingsNews Story
It's only in hindsight that critics of Rebecca Paul's lottery startups give her creditRebecca Paul's admirers outnumber her critics by a long shot in Georgia's capital city.But the critics were hot when Paul was starting the state's lottery in 1993. Ten years later, Tennessee has hired her to do the same thing for up to $752,500 a year.Georgia's lottery drew close scrutiny from state lawmakers and federal prosecutors after awarding a key startup contract to a vendor whose bid was millions of dol
Oct 20, 2003, 8:04 am - Lottery News

Big lottery vendor dogged by controversyNews Story
GTECH expected to bid for online games in TennesseeScandal and suspicion have marked GTECH's 22 years in the lottery business. But so has spectacular success.The company, which is expected to bid on the Tennessee lottery's online games contract, helps run lotteries in 26 states and 42 other countries. Its revenues exceed $1 billion a year, spokesman Bob Vincent said.But GTECH, which is based in West Greenwich, R.I., also has run into trouble, especially in the 1990s. In Georgia, where Tennessee
Oct 20, 2003, 7:59 am - Lottery News

Is Rebecca Paul as good as they say?News Story
When state lottery commissioners hired Rebecca Paul as the nation's highest-paid lottery director, they justified their decision by saying she was the best, the gold standard. State Sen. Steve Cohen dubbed her the Michael Jordan of her field.But a Tennessean review has found that many of the claims surrounding her are overstated.For instance, Paul said last month that Georgia lottery sales had grown on average 13% a year during her tenure. Lottery commissioners cited similar increases in ex
Oct 20, 2003, 7:52 am - Lottery News

Will Alabama get gambling?News Story
One of the biggest stories in the South over the past 13 years is the transformation of the conservative Bible Belt into a hotbed of legalized gambling.Mississippi and Louisiana opened dockside and land-based casinos. Lotteries sprang up in Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, South Carolina and Louisiana, joining Florida, which established its lottery in 1986.Alabama remains the lone holdout for state-regulated gambling, although the state does have Indian casinos and wagering at dog tracks. Plans for
Oct 20, 2003, 4:15 am - Lottery News