Arkansas Lottery Reveals Logo

This week was a busy one for the fledgling Arkansas Lottery.

The first shipment of Arkansas Lottery tickets is being transported, and will arrive in the state Monday, Lottery Director Ernie Passailaigue said Friday, and the lottery revealed its new logo.

The precious cargo will be transported by 18-wheeler to the Scientific Games (SGI) Distribution Center on the west side of town, arriving at 10:30 a.m., Passailaigue said at a meeting of the state Lottery Commission at the University of Central Arkansas.

In a ceremony to be witnessed by ASL and SGI staff and members of the public, Arkansas Lottery Commissioners will break the seal on the truck's rear doors and view the huge pallets supporting thousands of tickets. An SGI representative will remove the first pallet of tickets with a forklift.

The tickets will be distributed to 1,500 retailers throughout Arkansas and go on sale one second after midnight September 28. The lottery's equipment is being tested in preparation for the launch, Passailaigue said.

"Hopefully we'll have a fairly uneventful, in terms of mechanics, launch," Passailaigue said, though he said he expects "every possible question" from players and retailers in the lottery's first days.

Lottery officials have also unveiled the lottery logo as the countdown gets underway.

Also Friday, the Lottery Commission decided on bonding rules for retailers and voted to issue a notice that it anticipates awarding a contract to The Bond Exchange of Little Rock to provide surety bonding services. Stephens Insurance of Little Rock and Tupelo, Miss.-based BancorpSouth had also submitted bids for the contract.

Lottery retailers will be required to obtain $10,000 surety bonds, for which The Bond Exchange will charge rates ranging from $85 to $1,000, depending on retailers' credit scores. The bonds will be used to cover losses if retailers fail to turn over any proceeds that should go to the lottery.

Retailers also will pay an annual $10 fee to be deposited into a fidelity fund maintained by the lottery.

Ray Thornton, the commission's chairman, said he does not plan to call another business meeting before the lottery's launch. He noted that the lottery is starting several months earlier than he originally expected and thanked Passailaigue and the lottery staff for doing "an outstanding job getting us to this point in time."