NEWS
October 18, 1995 | VIRGINIA ELLIS, TIMES STAFF WRITER
The state's mishandling of a lottery computer contract has added $44 million to the price tag for a new customer-friendly ticketing system--and may have cost California's financially strapped schools as much as $113 million in anticipated revenue, legal documents and interviews show.
NEWS
June 13, 1996 | VIRGINIA ELLIS, TIMES STAFF WRITER
In a sudden decision, Gov. Pete Wilson replaced the head of the embattled California lottery Wednesday and named an official from the state prison system as interim director. A Wilson spokesman said Maryanne Gilliard, 35, a deputy director in the Department of Corrections, will take over as the lottery's top official effective Monday. She will be paid an annual salary of $98,652. The lottery has a budget of about $356 million a year and generates more than $2 billion in revenue.
NEWS
August 1, 1997 | VIRGINIA ELLIS, TIMES STAFF WRITER
The installation of a convenient, efficient system for cashing Scratcher tickets was delayed for years while the California lottery wasted millions of dollars on a lawsuit that it had virtually no chance of winning, a new audit found Thursday.
NEWS
February 6, 1996 | VIRGINIA ELLIS, TIMES STAFF WRITER
The California Lottery's costly mishandling of a multimillion-dollar computer contract demonstrates the need for tougher laws that would give the Legislature and the governor more control over the state's biggest gambling operation, a government report said Monday.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
February 15, 1996
Since its inception in 1984, the California Lottery has operated under rules that, compared with those imposed on other state agencies, give it extraordinary fiscal freedom. But costly missteps--including a fiasco in which millions were lost because of a canceled computer contract--have led some state officials to conclude that greater oversight is needed. High time. In a way the lottery invited trouble from the start.
NEWS
February 18, 1993 | VIRGINIA ELLIS, TIMES STAFF WRITER
The Wilson Administration ordered an internal audit Wednesday of the California Lottery's bidding process after only one company responded to a request for bids on a $250-million contract to run its computerized games. Officials said they found the lack of response from other bidders troubling and wanted to examine the bid specifications to ensure that "we have a fair and open competitive process."