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DIRECTOR: LOTTERY AIMS TO ENTERTAIN ADULTS, FUND SCHOLARSHIPS

By Wes Clement/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Tuesday, September 22, 2009 11:04 PM CDT

Entertainment is the name of the game, according to Ernie Passailaigue, director of Arkansas Lottery Commission.

Ernie Passailaigue, director of the Arkansas Lottery Commission, addresses the Pine Bluff Rotary Tuesday afternoon at the Pine Bluff Country Club. Pine Bluff Commercial/Ralph Fitzgerald

Passailaigue addressed the Pine Bluff Rotary Club Tuesday at Pine Bluff Country Club.

“This game should be played with only one perspective,” he said. “By adults, who are looking to be entertained, with discretionary dollars. If you don’t meet that profile, as much as I want to generate revenue for young Arkansans, I don’t want your money. We’re serious about this.”

“The lottery in Arkansas is designed for one purpose and one purpose only,” Passailaigue said. “That is to allow young Arkansans to get scholarship aid.”

He said, referring to South Carolina lottery survey results, the typical lottery customer is not someone spending food money on lottery tickets. Passailaigue headed the South Carolina lottery before moving to Arkansas.

“The majority of the people who played were middle income or above. The majority of the people were high school graduates or above. There are two telling statistics that I think you need to ponder: The majority of people, over 75 percent of the people, played less frequently than weekly.”

When they played, he said, they spent $1-$5.

He said about 60 percent of lottery sales will be instant (scratch-off) tickets and the other 40 percent will be Powerball tickets. Arkansas will be one of 33 states participating in Powerball, a multi-state jackpot lottery drawn each Wednesday and Saturday.

“What we at Arkansas Lottery have to do is communicate to the people of Arkansas that this should be fun entertainment,” he said. “The scratch-off instant ticket games are typically an impulse buy positioned close to a cash register, so what we want to do is, when people go into a store is to convey a message of fun and entertainment.”

Passailaigue said rather than illustrating instant tickets in South Carolina to be flashy or with gambling images like dice, he and that state’s lottery commission took a different approach.

He said South Carolina had themes for its instant tickets intended to be fun and communicate the lottery’s focus on entertainment.

Arkansas will initially have four instant tickets and themed tickets will be developed later, Passailaigue said.

After the Arkansas lottery begins, he said, there will be only seven U.S. states without a lottery.

Arkansas Lottery Commission Spokeswoman Julie Baldridge said as the Sept. 28 (instant tickets) and Oct. 31 (Powerball) start dates approach, the commission is working to complete several projects including set-up of additional claims offices.

“We are opening three additional claims centers,” she said. “There’s one in Little Rock and there will be one in Camden, one in Jonesboro and one in Springdale. The leases are being finalized and those are being retrofitted in order to be properly configured for their purpose.”

Winnings of more than $500 must be claimed at one of the centers.

“One of the things that we’ll be doing that he didn’t mention is we’ll be collecting unpaid Arkansas taxes and unpaid child support,” Baldridge said, “so if someone comes in with a $10,000 ticket, let’s say, and turns it over, we’ll have the capacity right there online to run that check instantly and if they owe money in the amount of or in excess of their ticket, we’ll say, ‘Thank you for coming in,’ and they will leave empty handed. The money would either go to the state coffers for back taxes or to their children.”

Passailaigue said lottery revenues of $200,000 per year will be set aside for gambling addiction treatment.

Arkansans voted to establish a lottery in November and Passailaigue began working for the lottery commission June 29. He said starting a lottery from scratch in less than three months would be a new record.

He estimated the lottery will generate about $250,000 net income per day.

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