LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas' lottery will have more than 1,500 retailer locations selling lottery tickets when sales begin Monday, the Arkansas Lottery Commission's executive director told lawmakers Thursday.
Ernie Passailaigue said the commission has received applications for 1,782 locations across the state, with 1,551 having cleared some or all of the required hurdles to be licensed to sell lottery tickets.
"Our goal was to start with around 1,500, and we will exceed that, and we will build out the rest of the network as quickly as possible," Passailaigue told the Arkansas Lottery Commission Legislative Oversight Committee. "We think we'll get up around 2,000 locations by the end of this calendar year."
Among other things, the committee signed off Thursday on the commission's plan to transfer $200,000 of a $6 million loan from the state to start Department of Human Services problem-gambling programs, including contracting for a line that problem gamblers may call for help.
Some wondered how much interest such programs would get from gamblers.
"I just fail to see where wego through all of this routine of getting to where you can gamble, and then we have to set up these [treatment] centers to keep you from gambling," said Rep. Billy Gaskill, D-Paragould. "I have a very dim view of a guy that is really gambling calling an 800 number to quit gambling."
Passailaigue said lottery vendor Intralot has installed either satellite or 3G communications equipment at about 1,300 retail locations, about 1,100 of which have all the required equipment, including lottery terminals and ticketchecking devices.
The satellite or 3G equipment allows the validation of prizes for scratch-off tickets and allows the sale of tickets for draw games by linking lottery terminals with the lottery's central system, he said. Arkansas won't start draw games until October.
Retailers started receiving scratch-off tickets Thursday. Scientific Games International of Alpharetta, Ga., had about 26 million tickets shipped in last week.
"We feel very good about where we are," Passailaigue said. "We will be working very diligently between now and midnight Sunday to get this mission accomplished."
The lottery will begin with four types of scratch-off tickets costing $1 to $5. Prizes for those range from $1 to $100,000. The odds of winning anything are about one in four.
Passailaigue said regional prize payment centers planned for Springdale, Jonesboro and Camden won't be open by Monday. The commission's attempt to have regional banks serve as these centers to save $300,000 to $400,000 a year failed when no banks submitted bids last month, he said. The centers will pay the larger prize amounts.
Retailers can pay any prize of $500 or less, and that will represent the vast majority of the prizes, Passailaigue said.
Also, any claim for a prize can be mailed to the lottery's headquarters in Little Rock. The winner will receive a check in the mail after it's determined the claim is valid, he said.
Another option is for any winner of a prize of more than $500 to the $100,000 top prize to drive to the lottery's headquarters at Little Rock to get a check, Passailaigue said. Arkansas residents outside a 50-mile radius of Little Rock will be paid 42 cents a mile by the lottery if they drive to Little Rock to claim prizes because the regional payment centers aren't open, he said.
Vice President of Administration Ernestine Middleton said she expects the Springdale, Jonesboro and Camden centers to be open within 90 days. The Springdale center could be open sooner, she said.
The Springdale center will be at 3896 Elm Springs Road, Suite B, a property owned by Mathias Shopping Centers Inc., she said. Anne Laidlaw, director of the Arkansas Building Authority, said the annual rent for the 1,800 square feet is $26,527. The lease is for five years, she said. The Building Authority still is negotiating the leases for Jonesboro and Camden, Middleton said.
Before the committee completed its review of thecommission's plan to transfer $200,000 to the Department of Human Services for problem-gambling programs, Sen. Johnny Key, R-Mountain Home, said it isn't his intent "that the burden of this continue to fall on the lottery."
The state's main lottery law, Act 606 of 2009, requires that at least $200,000 in unclaimed prize money be directed to the treatment of compulsive gambling and educational programs related to that. Because such money can't be determined until the lottery has operated for a while, the commission decided to tap the state loan funds that it also has been using to get the lottery started.
Mary Leath, deputy director of administration for the Department of Health, said the Health and Human Services departments and lottery commission have entered into a memorandum of understanding for the Department of Human Services to provide these programs, although the law provides for the funds to go to the Health Department.
Garland Ferguson, director of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Services for the Department of Human Services, said he hopes the line for problem gamblers will be ready Thursday.
He said he hopes to have 30 problem-gambling counselors trained to begin counseling Nov. 1. He hopes to have them placed at 12 sites by then.
Ferguson said there's a good chance that anyone calling the line Thursday didn't get their gambling problem from Arkansas' lottery.
Passailaigue said he doesn't know how many gamblers will need treatment. The lottery wants to sell tickets for "fun and entertainment," he said. The advertising for the lottery says "please play responsibly."
Key said he believes the state has needed programs for a long time.
"I think this is something that we need to evaluate next [legislative] session to see if the burden of this needs to be spread around to the other gambling outlets," he said.
Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs and Southland Park in West Memphis are major gambling centers.
Passailaigue has said the lottery ticket sales could be about $365 million a year. Gambling at Oaklawn Park and Southland Park totaled nearly $1 billion last year, according to the Arkansas Racing Commission.
Oaklawn and Southland officials have said they promote responsible gambling.
For example, Oaklawn has a training program under which each employee is given a card showing the National Council on Problem Gambling's toll-free line and Web site, according to Oaklawn spokesman Terry Wallace. He has said employees are to give the card to anyone who indicates he has a gambling problem.
Afterward, Sen. Terry Smith, D-Hot Springs, said he doesn't know whether Oaklawn Park and Southland Park should be required to chip in to finance the state's fledgling gambling-problem programs.
"I have to determine do we have a problem in this state," he said. "I would think we might determine it once they set the hot line up.... I know if I had a gambling problem I know who would solve that. It would be my wife."
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 13, 18 on 09/25/2009