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Thursday, October 30, 1997

Lottery Commission fires director

By JUAN B. ELIZONDO Jr. / Associated Press Writer

AUSTIN (AP) -- Amid a decline in sales, the Texas Lottery Commission fired its second executive director Wednesday.

The commission also placed its director of bingo operations, Marc Garcia, on administrative leave.

Commission members refused to discuss the reasons for their actions.

The fired director, Lawrence Littwin, blasted the commissioners as spineless and said they are not doing what they should for Texans.

"The people of Texas are getting ripped off," Littwin said. "The people of Texas are voting with their money. They aren't playing these games."

Littwin became the second lottery director fired this year. He said he believes he was dismissed because of political pressure and because the Lottery Commission is acting on behalf of its main contractor, GTECH.

"The commission showed little or no backbone in dealing with the political process," he said.

The commission has sought new bids on the services now being provided by GTECH. But Littwin said the commissioners had thought no one would bid and GTECH would retain the job.

"In every state where GTECH has been present and the director has not been a friend of GTECH's, something has happened to the director," he said.

Commissioners opted to seek new bids after newspaper reports late last year disclosed that a close friend of former executive director Nora Linares had worked for GTECH.

Ms. Linares said she was unaware of it and has sued GTECH for creating a situation that caused her to be fired in January.

Littwin said that before he arrived, there was no commitment to replace GTECH.

"The credibility rests on Larry Littwin. I've been a source of confidence for other vendors. Suddenly other vendors were bidding and were interested in bidding," Littwin said.

Political pressure arose last month when Littwin, hired in June, reviewed campaign reports for dozens of state lawmakers, saying he wanted to ensure that neither GTECH nor its officers were making campaign contributions.

Many lawmakers objected to the review, and the lottery commission said it had not authorized it.

Lottery ticket sales have dropped this year. Lottery officials blamed the decline on a maturing of the 5-year-old game, other gambling outlets and bad publicity.

GTECH officials said a significant cause of the declines, mainly in instant tickets, has been the stressed and tenuous relationship between the commission and their company.

Lottery officials said sales for the current fiscal year could be slightly lower than projections. GTECH estimates total sales could be down a total of $1 billion, from about $4 billion last year to about $3 billion.

Since June, when the lottery discontinued television advertisements for instant games, sales have steadily declined for those games. Lottery officials said that throughout the lottery's history, total sales have been driven by instant ticket sales.

Advertising, expected to restart late this year, was canceled because of objections to the lottery's "Scratchman" mascot. Some lawmakers said that enticed children to illegally play the lottery.

Lottery Commission Chairwoman Harriet Miers said the problem with declining sales is circular. As sales decrease, players lose confidence in the games, forcing sales even lower.

She said the commission must continue to emphasize the integrity of the games and work to keep Texans interested.

Lottery staffers are working on at least two new games. One could offer pickup trucks as prizes rather than cash. The other could be a lotto-like game using seven numbers. A date for introducing those games has not been set.

Garcia, who recently was reconfirmed to his job as bingo director, would not comment on his suspension.