Ernie Passailaigue, Arkansas Lottery Commission

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  • MIA: Passailaigue did not attend meeting

Arkansas lottery staffers seemed surprised this morning that two new lottery commissioners, Bruce Engstrom and Steve Faris, sat in on a meeting between the lottery’s retail division and representatives from the state Department of Information Systems (DIS). The lottery held the meeting to request that DIS turn over historical data on retailer contracts to be housed on the lottery’s own system, run by Intralot, the Greece-based company that holds the lottery’s online gaming contact. Engstrom and Faris raised concerns that removing that data from a state-run system would result in a lack of accountability. Faris suggested the lottery should not take action on the matter until it could be discussed before the full commission, which meets on Monday. The meeting then ended abruptly.

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Comm. Engstrom said after the meeting that this was an important decision and lottery commissioners should have been notified. The commissioners also expressed their unhappiness that lottery director Ernie Passailaigue was not present.

Much more on the jump including comments from lottery Vice President of Administration Ernestine Middleton, Engstrom and Faris.

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