Week in Review

State Capitol Week in Review

LITTLE ROCK – The state Lottery Commission has chosen a director, who is wasting no time in getting Arkansas prepared to sell lottery tickets by the end of the year.

The new director will be Ernie Passailaigue of Charleston, South Carolina, who helped start up the lottery in that state and since 2002 has been its director. Before heading the South Carolina lottery he was a state senator from Charleston. He is a certified public accountant.

Passailaigue has served as chairman of the Powerball Group and vice chairman of the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries. His national connections can only help Arkansas join with other states to eventually offer multi-million dollar prizes.

In an interview with Talk Business last week, Passailaigue said his first duties will include setting up scratch off games and lotteries with smaller prizes that pay off instantly. He predicted that most convenience stores that sell gasoline would sell lottery tickets, and said that any stores that don't sell lottery tickets would be at a competitive disadvantage.

He also said tobacco stores, drug stores and grocery stores would probably sell tickets. He also said he would like for the "big box" retail stores to join the lottery network.

Technology exists that allows people to buy lottery tickets from a machine similar to an ATM. You put in your money, you scratch off your ticket and if it is a winner you put it back into the machine and it pays your prize.

In separate press interviews he said he was in Little Rock to start the process of contracting with firms to print and distribute instant tickets. His goal is for instant scratch off tickets to be on sale in November.

There will be an educational process that will cause confusion and headaches during the first few weeks. Customers will have to learn how to play, and employees at retail stores will have to learn the rules on when and how to pay prizes. After the inevitable rough spots, the lottery operations will smooth out, he said.

Passailaigue said smaller prizes, for example those of less than $500, would likely be paid instantly at the retail store. Winners of small prizes usually buy items at the store when they collect their prize money, so store owners don't mind paying off instantly.

All the possible games won't be introduced at the same time, as that would be overwhelming. There will be a gradual introduction of new games, and Passailaigue hopes Arkansas participates in games like Powerball and MegaMillions, the lotteries with enormous pay offs.

Arkansas will probably start with four separate scratch off games, he said. Each will cost a different amount and pay a different prize.

He emphasized that lotteries are not for everyone, and people should play them only if they can afford it, using money from their discretionary entertainment budget.

Passailaigue's interviews with Little Rock media marked the first time concrete details have been publicized about the Arkansas lottery. Legislators who enacted the lottery law must be careful not to interfere or exert undue influence on lottery operations. The Lottery Commission is composed of nine citizens who have oversight authority, but will not conduct the day-to-day business of the lottery.