By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Lottery Commission voted unanimously Friday to hire Ernie Passailaigue, currently executive director of the South Carolina Education Lottery, as executive director of Arkansas’ lottery.
The commission met behind closed doors for nearly three hours before returning to open session and voting to hire Passailaigue, who will start July 1.
Passailaigue’s annual salary will be $324,000, pending approval by a legislative oversight committee. The commission must have legislative approval to pay the director anything above $141,603 a year.
Passailaigue did not apply for the position but was nominated by Commissioner Joe White on Conway. The commission’s chairman, Ray Thornton of Little Rock, said he was pleased the commission was able to recruit someone with Passailaigue’s qualifications.
“He has taken the South Carolina lottery to No. 16 in the nation in per-capita sales,” Thornton said. “He founded the lottery down there, was its first executive director. He has start-up experience and he’s widely respected throughout the industry.”
With a director chosen, the lottery should be on track for a start sometime around Thanksgiving, Thornton said.
Passailaigue served in the South Carolina Senate from 1988 until 2001, when he resigned to become executive director of that state’s lottery. He is vice president of the Multi-State Lottery Association and past president of the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries.
Thornton said Passailaigue was interviewed by telephone during Friday’s closed-door session. No one else was interviewed for the job, he said.
The commission turned to Passailaigue after being disappointed by the nearly 70 applications it reviewed.
“When we all became conscious that our choices were not as good as we hoped, Joe called him (on Tuesday) and asked if he would consider having his name put into nomination,” Thornton said. “By coincidence, I made a similar call.”
The commissioners got to know Passailaigue when he joined them for a two-day retreat on May 14 and 15 at Petit Jean Mountain and offered advice on starting a lottery. Passailaigue also attended a retreat with legislators at Petit Jean in February to offer advice on drafting lottery legislation.
Addressing the commission Friday via speaker phone, Passailaigue said he was looking forward to the job.
“This is a very exciting day for me,” he said. “It’s sort of melancholy in a way, because I’m leaving a family here that I helped build, but by the same token you always look ahead in life, and I’ve kind of fallen in love with Arkansas the couple of times I’ve been there.”
The commissioners congratulated Passailaigue and praised his qualifications.
“I believe we have found the right person to lead this state into an honorable and financially gainful lottery for the students of Arkansas,” Commissioner Patty Shipp of Morrilton said.
Passailaigue pledged to make the lottery a plus for Arkansas.
“My goal is not to sell lottery tickets to every adult breathing in Arkansas,” he said. “My goal is to make sure this lottery is run with the highest degree of integrity, to make sure that this lottery is not injurious to the people of Arkansas, that at the end of the day the people will look back on this in five or 10 years from now and say … this has been a positive part of the life of the people of Arkansas.”
Passailaigue said there is much hard work ahead, but he assured the commission, “I know how to get there from here.”
He also recommended including the word “scholarship” in the name of the lottery, saying that would emphasize the lottery’s mission to fund college scholarships, and received permission from the commission to begin discussions with the multi-state lotteries Powerball and Mega Millions.
Thornton said the salary being offered to Passailaigue is about $100,000 more than his salary in South Carolina, but he said the increase will make up for benefits Passailaigue will be giving up and cover his moving expenses.
Passailaigue has voiced a willingness to commit to the job for five years, Thornton said.
The commission’s decision was hailed Friday by Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, who first proposed the constitutional amendment voters approved last year to create a state-run lottery to fund college scholarships.
“I think they’ve got a winner,” Halter said, adding that Passailaigue’s experience “should allow him to get our lottery up more rapidly than someone without experience.”
Matt DeCample, a spokesman for Gov. Mike Beebe, said the governor is pleased to see the Lottery Commission moving forward and believes Passailaigue “does seem like someone who has a lot of solid experience in lotteries and … appears to be well regarded.”
