This year has been a bit rocky for the Arkansas Lottery, a lot of controversy has surrounded the former director Ernie Passailaigue and two other of his collaborators. Lotteries

In 2009 The Arkansas Lottery Commission had hired Passailaigue, then director of the South Carolina lottery, in 2009 make a quick launch of the Arkansas games. At that time he was the best choice because of his experience although the whole search was under a lot of pressure. However he resigned in September 19th this year following a series of complaints about the games’ management, including a nearly $100,000 penalty the Internal Revenue Service because of late payments. Mega lottery

After Passailaigue’s resignation, Vice President for Gaming David Barden followed and Vice President for Administration Ernestine Middleton was fired. The three of them came as a package back in 2009.

The commission voted Monday to begin its search for a new director in December, but the panel left unanswered how quickly it hoped to fill the vacancy left by Passailaigue. Julie Baldridge, who had been the lottery’s spokeswoman and legislative relations director, is serving as interim director during the search and won’t be a candidate for Passailaigue’s job.

The commission voted to begin advertising for the director job on December 1st and to begin reviewing applications at its January 9th meeting. The panel set a “priority” deadline of January 4th , but it said it would continue to accept applications after that date. This time the commission will take the necessary time to consider all the applications.

Commission Chairwoman Dianne Lamberth said the panel doesn’t have a strict timeline for when to hire a replacement for Passailaigue.

“We’ll leave it open ended until we find the right one,” Lamberth told reporters after the meeting.

Commissioners said they don’t know how the lottery’s organization will look after the new director is hired and whether Passailaigue’s successor would restructure the vice president positions.

One of the topics of much criticism was the former director´s salary. Passailaigue enjoyed an annual salary of $326,000 and his collaborators Barden and Middleton received a hefty salary of $225,000 each.

Lamberth said she doesn’t want the next director to be paid as much as Passailaigue. State law sets the lottery director’s maximum salary at $141,603 but allows the commission to pay as much as $354,000 with legislative approval. This wish is to be reckoned by most since it was one of the reasons why Passailaigue and his team was heavily criticized.

One thing is for sure, the next director will be under much scrutiny so that the former director’s
errors won´t be repeated. And all these steps will be made to ensure that the funds of the Lottery will be intelligently managed and distributed.