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Scratch-off lottery tickets arrive in ArkansasNews Story
It turns out $48 million in lottery tickets doesn't look as impressive as it sounds. Shrink-wrapped pallets arrived by tractor-trailer Monday to a warehouse in southwest Little Rock, a first shipment of about 30 million scratch-off tickets destined to inaugurate the start of Arkansas' state lottery. Lottery officials dolled up the event for reporters, with two police cruisers and a motorcycle blaring sirens as a semi-truck decorated with balloons and streamers, like a homecoming parade flo
Sep 14, 2009, 11:15 pm - Lottery News

Arkansas Lottery scratch tickets, logo revealedNews Story
This week was a busy one for the fledgling Arkansas Lottery. The first shipment of Arkansas Lottery tickets is being transported, and will arrive in the state Monday, Lottery Director Ernie Passailaigue said Friday, and the lottery revealed its new logo. The precious cargo will be transported by 18-wheeler to the Scientific Games (SGI) Distribution Center on the west side of town, arriving at 10:30 a.m., Passailaigue said at a meeting of the state Lottery Commission at the University of Ce
Sep 12, 2009, 8:04 am - Lottery News

Arkansas Republicans upset about makeup of lottery officialsNews Story
Arkansas Republican leaders are upset about a lack of representation in the formation and oversight of the Arkansas lottery. The Lottery Oversight Committee, composed of six House members and six Senate members, contains one Republican. The remaining members of the commission, picked by Gov. Mike Beebe, House Speaker Robbie Wills and Senate President Pro Tempore Bob Johnson are also Democrats or have Democratic ties. While Republicans concede that the party in power usually makes select
Sep 6, 2009, 7:57 pm - Lottery News

Arkansas Lottery begins licensing retailers for ticket salesNews Story
A Murphy USA retail outlet in Magnolia on Wednesday received the first license issued in the state to sell tickets for Arkansas' scholarship lottery when scratch-off games begin next month. Lottery Director Ernie Passailaigue presented the ceremonial first retailer license to Murphy Oil President Hank Heithaus during a meeting of the Arkansas Lottery Commission. Steve Beck, regional director for Intralot, the firm hired to run the lottery's drawing games, told commissioners the installatio
Aug 26, 2009, 10:53 pm - Lottery News

Computerized lottery drawings not problem-freeNews Story
MUSL director Strutt says Small group of players don't like them Passailaigue says players superstitious, spooked by changes in draw format Arkansas lottery officials say their decision to use a computer to generate winning numbers when lottery games start this fall makes economic sense, but the use of computerized drawings by lotteries in other states has not been free of problems. In July 2007, the Tennessee Education Lottery moved to save costs by doing away with its televised drawi
Aug 10, 2009, 9:22 am - Lottery News

Arkansas Lottery picks Scientific Games for instant ticketsNews Story
A Georgia lottery equipment company will supply scratch-off tickets to Arkansas' fledging lottery, an oversight panel decided Wednesday. The Arkansas Lottery Commission awarded an instant ticket contract worth 1.75 percent of net ticket sales to Alpharetta, Ga.-based Scientific Games Corp. The deal is expected to be worth millions of dollars based on a $400 million annual sales estimate. Commissioners also awarded an advertising contract to a Little Rock firm, as the panel speeds toward a
Aug 10, 2009, 9:07 am - Lottery News

Texas Lottery drawings inspire confidenceNews Story
Contrasted to the Arkansas Lottery decision last week to hide their drawings inside a computer, Texas has a model approach Stephanie Guidry and Mickey Roberts didn't have much else to do, so they stopped in front of the Texas Lottery Commission offices to watch the winning numbers be drawn. And because she and boyfriend Mickey Roberts had nothing pressing against their schedule from 10:09 to 10:13 on a weeknight, she stayed for the adventure. Even though they did not purchase a lottery
Aug 2, 2009, 1:21 pm - Lottery News

ARKANSAS LOTTERY DRAWINGS TO BE COMPUTERIZEDNews Story
Numerous polls show players do not trust computerized drawings Did Arkansas Lottery Commission hire the right team? Senator proposes bill scrapping the lottery Despite nearly universal player mistrust of computerized lottery drawings, the new Arkansas Lottery director made the inexplicable decision this week to forgo real mechanical lottery ball drawings, and use a computer program to select the winning numbers in the state's new lottery. The commission met at Philander Smith College
Aug 1, 2009, 1:20 am - Lottery News

Arkansas lottery panel to recommend salary survey for auditor positionNews Story
Commission feeling the heat as outcry over high salaries continues The audit committee of the Arkansas Lottery Commission decided Wednesday to recommend a national survey of salaries paid to lottery auditors before setting pay for the person to be hired as internal auditor of Arkansas' lottery program. The panel agreed it would recommend the commission ask the Bureau of Legislative Research conduct the survey. Internal auditor is one of two lottery positions for which the commission is dir
Jul 22, 2009, 8:18 pm - Lottery News

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