The newly appointed CEO of the Connecticut Lottery Corporation may be inheriting an agency rattled by some scandal, but his optimism is not wavering.
Greg Smith, 59, a New York native with experience ranging from hospitality to lottery management, says he had heard about the Connecticut Lottery’s tumultuous past, but it did not deter him from taking on the role of its leader.
“Had I heard some industry news stories involving Connecticut over the last couple of years? Yes I had. But I don’t think that’s going to end up defining the Connecticut Lottery in any way,” Smith said in a recent interview with The CT Mirror. “While we might have experienced a couple of difficult items over the last couple of years, we’re in a good place.”
Since joining the Rocky Hill-based office on July 20, Smith’s days have been largely characterized by learning the agency’s operations and history. That includes learning about the agency’s quasi-public model and marketing strategies, and about the two-year period of turmoil with which the agency continues to grapple.
The lottery’s ethical lapse was catalyzed by the arrests of some retail employees who sold lottery tickets in 2015 after they printed out winning tickets for themselves in a game. That led to the resignation of then-CEO Anne Noble. Subsequent controversies centered around Frank Farricker, who was board chairman before taking on the additional role of temporary CEO upon Noble’s departure. He stepped down in 2017, paying a fine and restitution of $11,318 when the Office of State Ethics found he had been improperly reimbursed by the lottery corporation for more than $6,000 in personal expenses on his home internet, cable TV and other services.
Most recently, on New Years Day 2018, five employees mistakenly excluded almost half of the eligible tickets for the Super Draw game, costing the corporation $1 million and necessitating a do-over game January 16.
But amid the chaos, the state lottery has nevertheless achieved financial success. In the 2018 fiscal year, it returned a record $345 million for the state’s general fund, surpassing its previous record of $337.5 million in the 2016 fiscal year. It also made $1.268 billion in sales, retailers earned $70 million in commissions, and players won more than $790 million. Additional contributions to the state of Connecticut from the lottery totaled $13 million, including more than $160,000 to the Department of Social Services.
Smith’s optimism is in part fueled by the corporation’s monetary growth.
https://ctmirror.org/2018/08/22/new-connecticut-lottery-ceo-optimistic-despite-past-issues/