You might have heard about the latest inflated numbers from the Texas Lottery. After a complaint was filed by
Dawn Nettles with the AG, the news came out that one of their recent jackpot estimates was inflated to increase ticket sales.
It turns out it wasn't just one estimate; under Reagan Greer, the most recent man in the barrel, the Lottery Commission has inflated numbers four times. By as much as 1.8 million. Texas Lottery Commision chairman Thomas Clowe and deputy executive director Gary Grief have laid the blame firmly on Greer's shoulders.
Greer has submitted his resignation; since 1997, this makes four directors that have come and gone in this position, all four under suspicious circumstances. What is it with the Texas Lottery Commission?
The lottery's first director, Nora Linares, was fired in 1997 after it was learned that her boyfriend had secured a consultant's contract with the private firm that the state pays to run many of the lottery's operations.
Linares' successor, Lawrence Littman, was fired after just five months on the job when lottery commissioners discovered that he had instructed his staff to examine the campaign contributions given to several senior lawmakers.
Littman's successor, Linda Cloud, resigned in 2002 after acknowledging that she had lied to a Star-Telegram reporter about the circumstances surrounding the investigation of a sexual harassment complaint made against one of the lottery commissioners.
It gets worse.
Reagan Greer is a former district clerk for Bexar County. After losing his re-election bid, he got the job of lottery director. The requirement of a four-year degree for the executive director's job had just been removed. Critics at the time said that this restriction had been removed so that Rick Perry could hand the job to Reagan Greer, a long time friend and supporter.
Two weeks after Reagan Greer had signed off on inflating the jackpot numbers,
the three-member panel that oversees the lottery criticized Greer for lax management and said the inflated jackpot estimate undermined the public's faith in the agency that generates $1 billion annually for the state.
Greer and other top lottery executives were also chastised last week for the controversy by a legislative committee. The lawmakers also were critical of the decision to fire a lottery staffer who helped make the inflated jackpot recommendation but then later raised a red flag, saying the figure should have been revised downward before the advertisements went up.
This lottery staffer who warned that sluggish ticket sales would not support the inflated lottery numbers, Lee Deviney, was the chief financial officer for the Lottery Commission. The TLC claims that his firing was not related to negative media coverage.
Dawn Nettles of the Lotto Report, who filed the complaint with the AG:
Baloney. Deviney was fired because Grief, Morris, Kiplin, Greer and Fernandez "thought" he leaked info to the press and because he was not a "team player." Deviney should be rehired and Gary Grief, Diane Morris and Kim Kiplin should all be fired "at will" just like they've done to so many other employees. There are certainly valid reasons to fire them.
As it's been revealed now - Deviney, Triloni and I tried to warn the Commission of cash shortages to fund the amount they were advertising. As it turns out, the executive staff ignored us and continued to deceive the players all for the sake of trying to make more money for the state.
And for the record, I NEVER spoke to Lee Diviney until AFTER he was fired. Proof can be found via our phone bills and our computers. Words cannot describe how I felt when I learned he had been fired after I filed the complaint with the AG - I felt that someone would take the fall but I had hoped it would have been the people who were "really" responsible for deceiving the People of Texas.
The Texas Lottery Commission is quickly becoming a hotbed of corruption. With the reduction of the security force from 32 to 5, there aren't enough people to investigate retailers or prospective commission employees. And what did they do with the money they saved? The offices are now richly paneled in mahogany; surely this will keep them more honest.
Greer isn't the only man to blame. Everybody knew about the inflated numbers, but they let Greer sign off on the jackpot, then axed him when they were found out. This is equivalent to the bad smell in the house that turns out to be a dead possum stuck in the chimney. Something is rotten in Texas, and it's time to clean it out.