The Texas Lottery Commission's executive director may lose his job and six other employees may be reassigned following revelations that the agency inflated jackpot estimates, according to a posted agenda.
Commissioners may meet in executive session July 11 to "deliberate the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline or dismissal" of executive director Reagan Greer, the agenda posted Friday states.
The notice also indicates the commission may discuss the reassignment of deputy executive director Gary Grief and up to five other officials and the appointment of an acting executive director.
"I'm reviewing a lot of information right now and giving this a lot of thought," said Tom Clowe of Waco, the commission chairman. He declined to comment further.
Greer was on vacation and unavailable for comment late Friday. Commission spokeswoman Leticia Vasquez said Grief had no comment.
Lottery officials told the commission at its June 24 meeting that they knew ticket sales would not cover an advertised $8 million Lotto Texas jackpot for the June 8 drawing, but they used the higher number to keep players interested in the game. They also admitted jackpots had fallen short of the advertised amounts twice before. No player won those jackpots.
The agency has already fired Lee Deviney, one of two managers responsible for proposing jackpots. But lottery officials say his dismissal had nothing to do with the jackpot issue and the timing was a coincidence.
According to the posted agenda, the commission also plans to discuss changing the rules for the Lotto Texas game and changing procedures for estimating and advertising jackpots for all Texas Lottery games.
The inflation came to light after Dawn Nettles, publisher of a Garland-based lottery report, filed a complaint with Attorney General Greg Abbott.
"If the commission does not hold all those accountable who are responsible for this, then I will be sorely disappointed," Nettles said.
I understand that Regan Greer is at the top of the chain of responsibility, but I would not fire him. I would instead fire people below him to give him a wake-up call.
I wouldn't fire anybody. Just make the changes so it doesn't happen again.
It looks like Dawn Nettles won't be happy until Greer is fired.
California has been doing this for years with SuperLotto, but they guarantee the jackpots instead of estimating them. Does this mean California has to change too?
If anybody from Texas wants to email the Texas lottery as I just did, here is the address:
service@lottery.state.tx.us
They won't listen probably, but anyway.
I want a 6/49 no bonus ball game and instead of the Tx2Step I want the TxMillion back, also 1 daily pick 3 draw and 1 daily pick 4 draw, the TxCash5 should stay as it is.
I know that they won't make the changes, but anyway.
And all predraws stink.
Whomever they fire, or don't fire, seems to me they need a citizen ombudsman with immediate access to the Commission and the Exec Director.... Maybe Dawn Nettles.... someone with a sharp eye and a sharper tongue to keep the honesty juices flowing in the lofty atmosphere of Texas Lottery management.
Nettles is in Garland, which is a middling drive from Austin, but Texas can afford some travel expense and retainer bucks to keep those lottery officials squirming.
Jack
If anybody from Texas wants to email the Texas lottery as I just did, here is the address:
service@lottery.state.tx.us
They won't listen probably, but anyway.
I want a 6/49 no bonus ball game and instead of the Tx2Step I want the TxMillion back, also 1 daily pick 3 draw and 1 daily pick 4 draw, the TxCash5 should stay as it is.
I know that they won't make the changes, but anyway.
And all predraws stink.
Back when Lotto World Magazine was in print it had a couple of articles and frequent references to the TX Lottery as to its pre and post draw ball tests.
Those references stated that those tests were performed to assure the public of the fact that the ballsets being used were not weight, size, shape biased in any manner.... that each ball in each game has an equal chance of being drawn.
Pre and post tests are a necessary means of public disclosure that all aspects of each game are random as humanly possible.
For those of us who believe there may be trending numbers in particular ballsets those factors can be put under the microscope in the feasibility studies we run trying to pick the winning numbers.
I for one wouldn't have it any other way.
Whomever they fire, or don't fire, seems to me they need a citizen ombudsman with immediate access to the Commission and the Exec Director.... Maybe Dawn Nettles.... someone with a sharp eye and a sharper tongue to keep the honesty juices flowing in the lofty atmosphere of Texas Lottery management.
Nettles is in Garland, which is a middling drive from Austin, but Texas can afford some travel expense and retainer bucks to keep those lottery officials squirming.
Jack
Sadly some important Texas Lottery Commision members "inflate jackpots" to sell more tickets. Of course this action deserves the fired of the responsible people because you as a customer have to paid for their mistakes.
If anybody from Texas wants to email the Texas lottery as I just did, here is the address:
service@lottery.state.tx.us
They won't listen probably, but anyway.
I want a 6/49 no bonus ball game and instead of the Tx2Step I want the TxMillion back, also 1 daily pick 3 draw and 1 daily pick 4 draw, the TxCash5 should stay as it is.
I know that they won't make the changes, but anyway.
And all predraws stink.
Sunday July 3rd, 2005
Sorry Lantern, I like Texas 2-Step. I never won anything on the Texas Million game. I love Cash Five, because I win on it all the time. I never play Pick 3, so it would not matter to me if they have one or four draws a day. I found Pick 3 to be expensive.
I am really worried about the Lotto Texas game. It moves up so slow, so I don't care if they change it. I did e-mail when we were ask about Mega Million joining us. I told them, I was in favor of it, but they needed to realize that Mega Million would cannibalize our other games.
Your right thought, even if everyone agreed with you and we all wrote an e-mail, nothing would change.
Michael E. Porter
meporter@myway.com
Whomever they fire, or don't fire, seems to me they need a citizen ombudsman with immediate access to the Commission and the Exec Director.... Maybe Dawn Nettles.... someone with a sharp eye and a sharper tongue to keep the honesty juices flowing in the lofty atmosphere of Texas Lottery management.
Nettles is in Garland, which is a middling drive from Austin, but Texas can afford some travel expense and retainer bucks to keep those lottery officials squirming.
Jack
Interesting idea, but they would never build in that level of public scrutiny, especially from someone with a record of digging dirt on them.
They really just need to fix some key problems, and unfortunately it doesn't look like they're going to accomplish that with the current slate of executives. From Greer's video interview (linked to in a previous Lottery Post news story on this issue), it was clear that he still doesn't see anything wrong with his actions, and he seems indignant to boot. That's the wrong approach to this issue, and it shows he's lost touch. Maybe he's been there too long.
I don't want to see people get fired, but I'm beginning to think that's going to be necessary.
Once the new organization gets installed, there are a number of things they can do to win back public trust, and it's just going to take a track record of consistency.
The idea of installing a built-in whistle-blower as a job title is not a good long-term strategy, because I don't think any organization could function properly if they are spending half their time just trying to keep that person happy. After a while, they will be making decisions for the wrong reasons -- how it looks to the whistle-blower, rather than how it functions for the average lottery player.
I understand that Regan Greer is at the top of the chain of responsibility, but I would not fire him. I would instead fire people below him to give him a wake-up call.
That would be like the Dallas Cowboys cutting their kicker after getting beat 63-14. The interesting thing about this situation is that Greer knew in advance the numbers did not add-up. He also know that Dawn Nettles watches everything that Lottery does, including reviewing the sales figures. What he didn't count on was her filing a complaint with the TX Atty General. Had she not done that, this issue would never have seen the light of day. I'm not saying that he needs to be fired, but if anyone is, then it needs to be him...
Michael
I am from San Antonio.
And they can keep their predraws if they want to, but they don't give me confidence in the games, only suspicion of wrong doing.
People say that the lottery games can't be guessed at right or predicted, but I think that the state lotteries know much better than that.
Good luck.
Lantern:
The twice daily Pick 3 drawings are valuable for tracking, believe it or not. I use Prime Line and have found that numbers drift between the two games.
We need to add Pick 4, if they want more money.
Cash 5 is one of the best games Texas offers. Texas Two-Step is good and should be kept as it is. Texas Lotto should be replaced with a Lotto Classic-style game like Michigan has done with its 6-47 offering. The old 6-50 game should replace the 44/44 matrix.
Don't think much will happen. By the way, I'm from Amarillo.
Orangeman
Lantern:
The twice daily Pick 3 drawings are valuable for tracking, believe it or not. I use Prime Line and have found that numbers drift between the two games.
We need to add Pick 4, if they want more money.
Cash 5 is one of the best games Texas offers. Texas Two-Step is good and should be kept as it is. Texas Lotto should be replaced with a Lotto Classic-style game like Michigan has done with its 6-47 offering. The old 6-50 game should replace the 44/44 matrix.
Don't think much will happen. By the way, I'm from Amarillo.
Orangeman
The twice daily Pick 3 drawings are valuable for tracking, believe it or not. I use Prime Line and have found that numbers drift between the two games."
They're probably using the same pool of ballsets for both games as GA does, but GA uses the same general pool of ballsets for ALL Cash 3 and Cash 4 drawings.
Were you to email the TX Lottery they probably would tell you.
Lantern:
The twice daily Pick 3 drawings are valuable for tracking, believe it or not. I use Prime Line and have found that numbers drift between the two games.
Yes, you are right and I know that, a quick look at both their histories and you see it.
But then you have to keep track of both histories instead of just one of them.
Adding a pick 4 draw to the 2 pick 3 ones, might farther maybe or not mix their past draws' patterns.
Maybe this could be less of a problem if the pick 4 game just replaced one of the pick 3 draws, there is a chance that then you could use the pick 4 draw as you used the pick 3 draw for tracking and vise-versa.
As to the old 6/50 game is good, but a 6/49 would be even much better in spite of the missing last digit. There is a very good reason for this.
Yes, right now the Txcash5 might be the best game and the Tx2Step is not so bad, but I don't like bonus ball games, get rid of the bonus ball and it would be even much better maybe.
One way or another they should add a pick 4 game.
Lantern:
We are mostly on the same page on this. I personally like the Pick 3 twice a day and think they could add Pick 4 twice a day, too. It would spread out the play, but it would also give more choice. Midday drawings are always less because people just don't have time to play.
The 6/49 would be great, but I doubt if they would do it unless they began the jackpot at $1,000,000 cash with no annuity and no half jackpots awarded. That would generate some excitement with little additional expenditure for the TLC.
Orangeman
Texas Lottery chief may lose job over jackpot snafu
Cool. If he does lose his job, he can show us how great the lottery is by playing
I'll check it out. I think the Bonus Ball is OK for Texas Two Step. However, I think Texas should not include the Bonus [Money] Ball in the Texas Lotto. They should go to a 6/56 game.
A new matrix of 6/53-6/56 is fine with me.
good idea....
Sadly some important Texas Lottery Commision members "inflate jackpots" to sell more tickets. Of course this action deserves the fired of the responsible people because you as a customer have to paid for their mistakes.
you got that right....