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AR Lottery spokesperson: Wrong salary set for security chief because of Web page errorNews Story
Arkansas lottery spokesperson Julie Baldridge claimed Wednesday that Grant County Sheriff Lance Huey was hired at what lottery staff members believed was the midpoint salary grade because a state Web site listed the salary as such. Huey was hired to serve as the lottery's director of security at a salary of $115,644, which Baldridge said actually is the peak of the salary range for the position. Baldridge said the position and salary was listed on the website of the state's Department of Fina
Jul 22, 2009, 7:36 pm - Lottery News

Arkansas Lottery Commission hits panic button on salariesNews Story
High salaries doled out for top positions in Arkansas' state-run lottery program could sour legislators' relationship with the commission they created to oversee the games, Gov. Mike Beebe said Thursday. The governor welcomed the Arkansas Lottery Commission's decision a day earlier to review salary offers of more than $80,000 made to future lottery hires. But the governor said he thought lawmakers were surprised that at least a half-dozen of the first employees hired to run the lottery got si
Jul 17, 2009, 10:05 am - Lottery News

Arkansas Lottery director hires core management staffNews Story
Outcry over high salaries; Director defends Ernie Passailaigue, who started his job two weeks ago as executive director of the Arkansas Lottery Commission, has been steadily hiring employees to fill core management positions, while defending the high salaries he is giving the new staff. Before the hiring commenced, a legislative committee signed off ealier this month on the newly hired lottery chief's plan to pay his top deputies more than $200,000 each. Passailaigue asked legislators t
Jul 15, 2009, 11:53 am - Lottery News

Paula Bethea named interim S.C. Lottery chiefNews Story
The S.C. lottery has hired one of the games' original commissioners to be its interim executive director, an official said Wednesday. Paula Harper Bethea, a Bluffton civic leader and McNair Law Firm executive, is expected to take over daily operations of the $1 billion-a-year lottery later this month, said Tim Madden, lottery commission chairman. Bethea will succeed executive director Ernie Passailaigue. He resigned July 1 to start the Arkansas lottery, which is expected to begin sales lat
Jul 9, 2009, 8:03 am - Lottery News

Arkansas Lottery director scrutinized over staffing plansNews Story
Just a few days into his job running Arkansas' lottery, Ernie Passailaigue is already sounding like a man under siege. In his first appearance before lawmakers as the state lottery's executive director, Passailaigue complained that reporters were focusing only on the negative and the trivial. And he says the public won't understand what goes into setting up the lottery from scratch. Passailaigue took a defensive tone last week as he explained his plan to create 88 positions for the new gam
Jul 7, 2009, 10:29 am - Lottery News

Arkansas lottery director turns down $11,000 housing allowanceNews Story
The incoming head of Arkansas' lottery, set to be one of the highest-paid lottery directors in the country, didn't take all the cash offered him. Ernie Passailaigue's $324,000-a-year salary was just part of the deal when he was hired June 5. The Arkansas Lottery Commission chairman, Ray Thornton of Little Rock, also directed the state to pay $980 a month for a year $11,760 total for housing support for Passailaigue. But Passailaigue turned it down. He said that during negotiations for the
Jun 25, 2009, 2:18 am - Lottery News

Arkansas Lottery hires away S.C. directorNews Story
New director is 3rd highest-paid in U.S. The Arkansas Lottery Commission has hired Ernie Passailaigue, the director of the South Carolina lottery, to lead the formation of Arkansas' newly approved lottery program. He will start the job July 1 and be paid a salary of $324,000. It's possible that lottery ticket sales could begin as early as October. Passailaigue (pronounced Pass'-a-laig) is a past president of the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries, a lottery tra
Jun 18, 2009, 9:47 pm - Lottery News

Ark. Lottery Commission meets, discusses director candidatesNews Story
The Arkansas Lottery Commission got a little closer, with emphasis on little, to naming an executive director. The newly-formed commission met in Little Rock, and commssion chief Ray Thornton told members that the list of applicants for the position currently stands at 55. That number does not include previous applicant Tom Courtway, interim president at the University of Central Arkansas, who has withdrawn his name from consideration. The commission opted not to rely on a hiring commit
Jun 2, 2009, 8:12 am - Lottery News

S.C. lottery chief says Arkansas can clear $125M in first yearNews Story
New commission urged to focus on hiring director South Carolina lottery director Ernie Passailaigue estimated that the Arkansas lottery could clear roughly $125 million in net profit its first year. Passailaigue spoke to Arkansas Lottery Commission members Thursday afternoon at a working retreat held at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute within Petit Jean State Park. Joining him to pass along expertise in helping implement successful state lotteries was Margaret DeFrancisco, director of th
May 15, 2009, 8:24 am - Lottery News

Connecticut lottery agents protest cut in commissionsNews Story
More than 100 lottery agents from across the state came to Connecticut Lottery headquarters in Rocky Hill Thursday to protest a cut in ticket commissions by the Connecticut Lottery Corp. The agents, who represent businesses ranging from small convenience stores and gas stations to delis and grocery store chains, are frustrated by an act that state legislators passed in February that cut commissions from 5 percent to 4 percent as of April 1. The lottery corporation's board of directors stil
May 8, 2009, 11:30 am - Lottery News