The error resulted in a do-over drawing January 16, the suspension of a number of employees, and lingering government investigations. But on New Year’s Day 2018, the lottery corporation experienced another setback when a five-member drawing team excluded nearly half of the eligible tickets from a New Year’s Day Super Draw game. Turner led the corporation to unprecedented financial success. The lottery’s top position has been vacant ever since, but various individuals have temporarily served as acting leaders, including Farricker.įollowing him, the then-chief-of-strategy Chelsea Turner assumed the role as acting CEO. She entered into a profitable severance deal with the agency that would allow her to, among other things, qualify for lifetime retirement benefits. Shortly after, in 2016, Noble stepped down following an investigation of her handling of the fraud scheme. The retail fraud led to 15 arrests of some employees of retailers who sold lottery products. Phaneuf / Īnne Noble was serving as the corporation’s CEO when employees at lottery retail outlets were charged with printing out winning tickets for themselves in a five-card cash game. Phaneuf / Anne Noble, former President and CEO of the CT Lottery Corporation, testifying before the legislature in 2015. I am very interested and I consider it a positive that Connecticut is this far along and engaged.”Īnne Noble, former President and CEO of the CT Lottery Corporation, testifying before the legislature in 2015. “Connecticut should look at iLottery and sports betting to see how they can best serve. He is also hopeful that Connecticut will eventually embrace sports betting and an online lottery, although he believes both need further study. Instant ticket vending machines are one item on Smith’s agenda, which he hopes will be implemented later this fiscal year. “I’m going to learn and continue doing the steps we’ve been doing for our game evaluations before we launch them and after we do.” “For me to be relevant, and for me to be thoughtfully bringing forth ideas, I need a little bit more homework time,” he said. With his varied experience in lottery, Smith has some thoughts about some processes he can potentially carry over to Connecticut, though he stresses the importance of learning the state operations before implementing any changes. Prior to that, with a degree in hotel and restaurant management from Purdue University, he owned and operated a few Vermont businesses, including an inn with his wife, and a Vermont retail shop. Smith got his start in the state lottery industry by serving as executive director of the Vermont Lottery Commission from 2012 to 2016 - a much smaller operation. When asked why he chose to transition to Connecticut, Smith’s answer was lean: “The search for a director in Connecticut came to me,” he said, though he later applauded the state’s quasi-public model, which reports to the legislature while generating profit from its own services. He was not keen on the private management model because it makes the day-to-day work more challenging. The state’s lottery is one of only three in the country to use a private company to manage its day-to-day operations, and Smith was charged with transitioning to the corporation’s second ever private manager. Smith stepped into that role in 2016, at a time when Illinois Lottery’s private management company had recently been terminated. Prior to joining the Connecticut Lottery, he served as the Director of the Illinois Lottery - a state agency with a $2.8 billion budget and more than 7,500 retail outlets statewide. Smith, however, is not a stranger to business complications. And part of that is going to fall in my lap, but it’s not going to happen this week.” “Wrapping the whole thing up and having the audit reports written about it… making sure the lottery and the Department of Consumer Protection will all say the matter is finalized…. “These matters need to be resolved,” he said. Currently, he is working with the corporation’s employees to pay prizes, get claims validated, and evaluate the practice and rule-writing “so there is never a chance for this to repeat itself.” “There were a number of people involved in that drawing… we need to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said. He is starting by tying together the loose ends of the New Years Day Super Draw episode, which he describes as the “specific human error” of five people at the same point in time.

Though Smith joins the corporation in what he hopes will be a new, clean era for the lottery, he will have to grapple with some of the aftermath of the corporation’s past problems. Things appear to be fair and a good engagement for the players,” he said.

That’s very good, and the public continues to buy the products. “You think of the problems….and yet, we set another record.

Connecticut lottery superdraw