ALC-Lottery Oversight Subcommittee

Committee to order. And the. First thing on the agenda comment by the chair I will remind everybody this is our last meeting of this legislature session and the I want to thank representative Deffenbaugh for being such a good to a culture on this Committee why we've been here years covers for me and I'll try to cover for him but to I will ask if you have any comments. I do appreciate your patience with us and and with me especially and that you know it's been a real blessing to serve in the House representatives in that I'll I'll let never forget it probably get a lot of people either thanks. Thank you with that said we will review of the office of Arkansas law report exhibit city striker. Thank you Mr thank you members we appreciate the opportunity to appear here before you today on your overhead screen you'll find our usual monthly report and I'm pretty pleased to report the numbers that you're gonna see today and I'm I'm mindful of the time in the lateness in the year and so I'm gonna hit the high points if I missed something that draws your attention just ask a question we'll circle back to deal with that as well. If you look. It. The screen you will see. This is November compared to so this is November twenty two November twenty one so where were we last year verses where are we today and at the end of November of twenty twenty two we had referred our monthly sales were fifty eight million. Five hundred seventeen thousand nine hundred thirty six dollars that compares with forty seven million one hundred twelve thousand seven hundred three dollars and twenty one that's a twenty four point two percent increase that's pretty eye popping numbers double digit increase in a quarter of an increase on the on the total then it begs the question where's all that coming from and I think this is a perfect example to go back and talk about the vagaries of outsize jackpots we definitely benefited from two sizable jackpots in this fiscal year and those those what those do is is that changes the dynamics of the lottery financials the draw games generally will generate about a forty five percent margin where our institutions are considerably less you might be looking at twelve ten twelve fifteen percent so obviously it's to our benefit to sell as many draw tickets as we can and when you see a big jackpot run like that you'll see a rush to the tale and so that's I'm not gonna say it's a hundred percent behind the the outsides number I do believe that our game portfolio both in November and what we have just launched in December are being well received it's not every month that I run into people who want to compliment us on our game portfolio but the last both in November and and recently with our December launch I've had people literally walk up and say Hey those are great games tell your guys would really appreciate it so we think we're trending right there one of the other things that we look at when we look at this she this is if you look down a total operating expenses clearly with sales come expenses so when you see a twenty four point two percent up tick then you're going to drop down you're going to see what what was the expenses expenses obviously gonna go up your conducting more business you're paying more prizes you're paying commissions it was fourteen point six percent so when you see the spread between twenty four and fourteen we've done well in in managing our expenses so we feel like the metrics around the lottery in the lottery games or sound. November net proceeds ten million six hundred and fifty seven thousand nine hundred eighty nine that compares to seven million to twenty eight seven seventy eight and twenty one that's a forty seven percent increase you cannot expect that every year and you can't expect that every month but we'll take those Everytime we can't so that's that's why we participate in the multi state games that's the advantage that they give us they really can serve to boost your balance sheet I think one thing I would caution is is when we do budget we we back those large jackpot numbers out and we try to come in internally with what we believe in our opinion would have been a normal month for draw sales and then we may add a little bit to that or we may hear cut that but regardless when we present the twenty four budget by example you'll see that when we compare your over year and you'll say well why did you do so well in November of twenty two but yet in November of twenty three you're projecting something far less it's because we do not forecast these large jackpots you can go an entire year without one of them we've been very fortunate we've had to this year so I say that simply isn't as a word of caution that you know I have to question myself when I see these numbers when they first at my desk and in your mind runs wild and you start extrapolating what could the world look like and then you have to temper that and say well but what is the world likely to look like. Let me swing through here and two year to date November in this is a year over year comparison year today so we're at the five month mark right now so. Right now we've done two hundred and fifty two million two hundred and twenty four thousand four hundred eighty six dollars that's in five months. So if you take that number and and we we say this cautiously but but again we're trying to forecast here in you extrapolate that out you know we're on track for either our best or second best year. If I were a guessing manner betting man if you will I would say probably second best year on gross revenues if in fact we continue to trend and I I don't want to jinx us but we we do like the way net proceeds are trending if you look at the net proceeds number at the bottom of the page you'll see forty six million nine hundred forty one dollars five hundred and forty. Forty six million nine hundred forty one thousand dollars five hundred forty two that's a nineteen and a half percent increase but if you take forty six million and you extrapolate from that that is pushing you into record net proceeds numbers if we continue to trend you got to be positive and we don't want to jinx ourselves by the same token I just. My obligation is to tell you where we're at and and how we see it so we're trending will there. If we move the year to date versus budget. You'll see that we're seventeen percent over over what are expected sales were were forty one percent above what we expected net proceeds to be. At this point so with with that out there floating we feel like again we're trending in the right direction for cautious we know there could be tough months ahead we know that the fed just raised rates another fifty basis points today rates are going up consumers are being cramped and people are beginning to live on credit that will impact lottery sales we're mindful of that. That will cover. I'm going to swing through here and then these are our monthly numbers for for County any any fuel you'll see a trend here and usually I'll tell you what the the top five counties were intended to be a they're six counties that kind of play in the top five we we did have a surprise in November Pulaski obviously led the way Washington County finished second Benton county was third Craighead was fourth does for typically always in the top. Five or six point. But Seling County popped up in the number five. And so when we look at that and we say well wait a minute what happened in Jefferson County or or or you know what happened to the Faulkner County because normally those are two counties that we would expect to see their each you start looking a little deeper to demographics and now you're starting to see what what could it be that certain areas of the state per for draw games more than instant games or is there a pocket of people who will play instant games exclusively we're starting to look at it a little differently now and we think that when we're tracking this by county and then you break down the demographics of that county and it's very interesting to see we're gonna continue to get there and we're gonna see what we can find with with digital distribution kind of on the front and digital marketing and you're out here in social media we want to make sure that the message that we're sending into these areas is the message that they want to hear and that is if you want to play these games here they are but the overriding message is always in you always hear say this it's it's raising net proceeds but it's raising net proceeds in a responsible manner and I always tell our team you know we've got to remember those last four words in a responsible manner it's not just that we could sell more lottery tickets it's are we doing it responsibly so we look at that we do we are mindful of the counties we are mindful of average income these are things that we do talk about So rest assured those are those are on our radar as well. We always report that retailer lost debts that often income tax there were no retailer losses the total debt set off was fourteen thousand five hundred and one dollars but if you look I always run the total since inception so when you look at total that set off you're looking at revenue taxes back taxes owed to DF in a office of child support enforcement since the inception of the lottery we've collected two point three million dollars in money that probably otherwise would not have been collected or certainly not as quickly and if you look at income taxes with held up total income taxes withheld from inception or a hundred and sixty million dollars just shy of that so those are the benefits the county ancillary benefits that runs alongside the lottery in general that really perhaps don't get the attention that they should that we're committed to that. I've put here the the current games that were offering in November these or what rolled out in November we're trying some new things Mike Smith who's here with me today is our gaming director he's been in the business for for decades and he's always trying to keep these games fresh and you know we had the Betty Boop I had a question about the Betty Boop game one day so I wanted to to come in with another exciting game we have and that is the peppermint pay out and it's the first ticket that we've offered that smells like peppermint. So if you're if you're a have a non winning tickets we would encourage you to go ahead and enter that in our players club for a second chance drawing but we also would would recommend you keep that your car it'll make it smell really good. A. We provide enough tread enhances reporting give you I said I think in the last meeting we're trying to to give you information that we would thank you might wanna know putting ourselves in your shoes as best as we understand that it time some of this may be superfluous of it is we're certainly willing to remove that will add anything that you're that you that you would like to see one of the things that I did the one I don't want to sit and belabor it during your time here today is we've asked each of our major term vendors and for life and scientific games to provide sections to this report that essentially or report to you so it's their report to you outlining the services that they provide us with a lottery so we don't tell them how to do this this is just simply something that that so here's your site games report and that's a section there that you've got you can thumb through there and see the actual lay out of sight games as far as personnel they break down the financials there November highlights interlock does the same thing and will continue to to offer those to you and less you tell us that that's not necessary. other than that I'll entertain any questions I hope I've given you the highlights again I'm mindful of the time. Okay. Okay. Or a representative ray you're won only. Okay I turn you off turned back on. Thank you Mr chair which you may use use the phrase alluding to increasing sales you said in a responsible manner can you can you just elaborate on what you mean by that. Sure we we think that it's incumbent upon us to be good community storage of what we call a public trust we think the lottery is a public trust and we think it's a little different than the average what you would refer to as a Leisure play or a you know you'll hear him say oh that's one of the one of the the send agencies you know alcohol medical marijuana the lottery casinos racing but but one thing that we think is that there are a lot of people who really are not in favor of gaming but they understand what the lottery does and I have people tell me routinely when I'm out speaking to groups I'm really not a gambler alike plan the lottery because I know even if I don't win it's going to a good cause and that's kind of the way we see it to and so we know we don't want to be on every street corner and every run down liquor store and every run down convenience store we will lead the lottery is something that ought to be kind of protected and and almost cherished it's generating a considerable amount of money for Arkansas students and we don't want to just take a shot gun approach to what we want to be good stewards we want to be could members of the community. Okay the other thing I want to ask as you mentioned there was some counties that are typically don't perform size they do and they had moved up or or whatnot you said you were gonna break down the demographics on who's buying and who prefers which type of game can you elaborate more on what those demographics are lottery sold anonymously at the counter so there's no way we know the true demographic of the buyer all we can do is look at county demographics and look at sales and you can only draw a certain level of correlation to that but at least it gives you some idea as to what is selling so if you look at a county and you see that you're seeing strong sell through an instant tickets that's going to be a county who in our mind prefers instant tickets you may find a county we see this in Northwest Arkansas where been county in Washington County have good appetites for draw games you can draw a lot of questions as to why is that the case but it is seems to be the case it's nothing that we would use to direct the business at a granular level it's more just kind of a view of it and and kind of a feel it's a very much kind of a touch position and and it's simply to so that we can be efficient I don't want to be marketing games in a county that's not interested in. Draw games digitally our our our main advertising goes statewide but were more and more and and I think you probably heard it from other agencies that engage with consumers to it's all about engagement with the consumer and and getting them the message that they're looking for. So the demographics that you're looking at are strictly based on geography they're not based on income level or race or anything like that well we wouldn't. We we we see what we see I we just started this process I mean this is just something that we started noticing and really it came as a result of preparing this report and as we prepare the report and we begin to calculate the data by county and I don't know how it was done prior to my arrival but suddenly the light switch went on with me it's very clear that there are certain counties that are more active during certain times than others so by way of example if we launch new instant tickets and we see a spike in accounting then that's going to tell us something about that county in their appetite for scratch tickets if we see a spike on a big draw a jackpot again it's insightful for us it's just us knowing your customer is really what it's about we don't know who our players are the anonymous that's one of the beauties of of playing the lottery is is if you want to go play lottery that that not everybody in your neighborhood it's going to know that by the same token we try to look for generalities trends I do think household income is is indicative because that's that's also indicative of discretionary income so you're gonna be looking there to see well if they have low income in that county or they selling more twenty dollar tickets more five dollar tickets more one dollar tickets and it gives us more of a feel for how the that particular populace of use the lottery thank you. Hey Senator Rice. You mentioned the amount. The tax is collected do you have any break out that shows It It okay all the court shall not able to take child support the back in rears and those times are any attacks lanes do you do that to give me a break out for that shows number of people or the dollar amount just have a dollar amount here on the screen is you see so on the debt set off with D. F. and a an office of child support enforcement what you're seeing there in the first column is November of twenty two so by example on child support enforcement we collected one thousand one hundred seventy six dollars and child supporter ridges through lottery winners who came in to claim their prize and then to the right column is since inception so since inception in the case of child support through redeeming lottery tickets the lottery has recovered six hundred and seventy seven thousand one hundred seventy six dollars thank you had never got to see that thanks yes. Senator Hammer. Thank you thank you Mr your referenced about y'all or keep an eye on the future you know with the economy inflation and all those sort of things do you when your ability to project out and do you use a actuary to help establish what your predictions are as far as what the future would be cause for enjoin real healthy environment now how are you projecting and how far are you projecting before we turn down or can you just talk about that for me sir we we we we do it internally and it's strictly done You know it's it's a process where senior managers in the lottery sit down we look at other lotteries that we consider to be peer lotteries we try to see what trends are happening around our border states because we obviously compete at the borders it we watch economic data and I think that's we're watching that more now than perhaps in the past up again I can't speak to how it was done before I got there but we usually we believe that that you'll see economic indicators that will portend either a an uptick or downtick It's all about discretionary income so anything that impacts discretionary income is something we're concerned about so let's say that you have a tax increase let's say groceries go up fuel although fuels and just a single metric it's an important metric When we look right now all we can see is is that. Fed comments fed seems hawkish if the fed's hawkish and they're going to increase rates are going to hold rates at a higher level over a period of time there that's going to have a certain impact on the lottery and that will as we plan our calendar will account for that I know representative ray had asked for strategic plan and we did complete that and send that over it's difficult in the lottery world to forecast to far out because of the vagaries of the jackpots you literally are are playing in an uncertain world but what we do look at are the indicators that we can see discretionary income consumer price index credit card debt if any of those things are indicative does that the economy's going one way or the other okay thank you. Where the questions. We appreciate you the. Your report on that will move on to I don't D.. And we will. Reviewed Department of higher ed in washroom birth print which I agree you have that. I do have exhibit day yesterday good with the yes Sir with regard to exhibit the this report was issued on November the first of twenty twenty two and this is a statutory report that the lottery is required to file annually it's subject to section twenty three dash one fifteen dash eight oh one subsection D. three. In in in what we do here is is we provide to you that all of the expense reimbursement requests that we've received from ADHD designating what's been paid and what hasn't. In this instance we've given you two numbers so by way of example we have not reimbursed for their current fiscal expenses we did reimburse for fiscal twenty two they've given us an estimated budget of one million four hundred and twenty one thousand nine hundred and thirty three dollars as it is what we can expect typically what we've done in the past is we would reserve five hundred thousand we budgeted five hundred thousand because that's about what those expenses have been in years prior we did get surprised a bit on the twenty two reimbursement the actual reimbursement was one million seven hundred twenty three thousand nine hundred ninety five dollars and thirty one cents we had we had budgeted for five hundred and obviously that impacted net proceeds And I think that's why you we have and I may have made mention if I have and I meant to we've we've currently what we do is is ADHD sends over there expense reimbursement to the lottery. And we pay it we don't control it it just hits the Deskins there any write the check But right now it's being carried as an expense of the lottery so it's an off boarded expense of ADHD and what what we would like to do and we think it cleans up the accounting and it removes an ADHD expense from our our financials is currently we carry that isn't as a lottery expense so it hits my G. an act I can't control the expense but I'm obligated to explain the expense in because it's an above the line expense it impacts net proceeds return on sales. Last session we saw and I think it's been introduced before by my understanding a bill that was was proposing to implement a targeted mandate that required the lottery to return a certain percentage this is the kind of expense that's floating above the line in the lottery right now that really should be off of our financials it's an expense that we believe should come from net proceeds net proceeds are there to fund scholarships and while we have a statutory obligation to reimburse them for expenses associated with providing scholarships with the money provided by the lottery not all their scholarships but the scholarships that lottery money pays for we believe that could could come out of net proceeds and it actually would be a cleaner accounting and and from my chief fiscal officers appointed to you it brings us closer in line with what you would see in a traditional gap accounting now what we have right now is essentially an expense carried by a subsidiary and and it skews our numbers and I think it it plays to those who would impose a targeted mandate on the lottery when in fact we run a very very efficient lottery for our size We certainly have no no no qualms about paying their their expenses we understand those are expenses the legislature and in previous years Salfit that the lottery proceeds should should cover that but historically and I don't the statute doesn't specifically say where the money should come from but historically it is just literally been carried as an expense by lottery and we would just like to see that reimbursement come from net proceeds we think it keeps everybody accountable and cleans up the financials twenty two we have several questions so Senator Hickey a recognized you yes Sir of the and I agree this is always a. Something I want to look at look at and I think that we were possibly going to run legislation because I'd like to see this white for the five year period and I ask about so time let me ask you have you researched the constitutional amendment because I was thinking there was something and within the constitutional amendment itself that allow them to do that. I'm not sure I have it we we simply look to the lottery statute and dropped right the language from there but we certainly will do so miss Clark and may want to which because I they're they're possibly because a few years ago we went all the way through that and I may and I may be mistaken but it seems like to me there may have possibly been some language within that one other question from you and again we can ask miss Markle did you all delve into these expenses I see that they're listed here in Austin they give you but I see that and we may have talked about this a month or two ago but the professional fees this time was a million one we know exactly what those professional please or is that something we need to ask them I would defer to them okay I'll do that in a minute Mr thank you thanks Sir. Senator Hammer. Thank you Mr thank you Mr chair and I don't know this but you are Markham but in looking at the expenses for twenty twenty two and then looking at the budget for twenty twenty three so like professional fees and twenty twenty twos like one point one million but they're only budgeting for twenty three half a million and I'm just wondering why the what accounts for the local. Request for the drop in the lower questions Senator at the we we don't have any any clarity behind the numbers okay prototype you committed to the table please. If you would both please identify yourself for the record yes Sir Maria Markham director the Division of higher education assistant director Nick fuller is the assistant director for finance the one time expenditure was for the rebuild at the financial aid application system we went from the universal software to the sams program that is something that we discussed with with this group and and with lottery prior to entering into that contract we only have a one year expenditure because what the bill does complete all will have is the maintenance after that so are Our budgeted spent expense on that will just be maintenance after the twenty two year. We would set under capital outlay under professional fees professional fees okay. And so the. The increase look of professional service manages eighty in twenty twenty two what you're asking for an increase. Of the about double that the justification for the increases in the other categories can you just hit on what those are the trash for more than what the actual twenty two expenses were I'm gonna let Nick take that one okay. The the increase would be for and an additional at the staff member on the salary matching piece to manage because we we are moved we moved the application portal in house rather than being hosted by what used to be I. NA the host of the universal portal we've developed the new system in house and haven't staff working on that so that the large increases were due to the bill that will begin in fiscal twenty two and finished in this fiscal year and then the on going updates will just be the maintenance and then the additional IT staff member okay thank you. Senator Hickey you're recognized yes when I guess first of all I will go to that all right so we're taking on this new person though is the but have we have we done any cost analysis is our is our net better. And if so by how much approximate you don't have to get specific. It It should net out expenses about even the the issue is bringing the person in house rather than contracting with the company in updating to the. More user friendly. Portal that's nineteen years old so it's not going to cost and in the large increase more to do this is going to net out about the same as what we would be paying to do the contract people to does the old website okay. Whenever you get to specifics if the chairman mine out I'd like to know down down to the. Close within a dollar to a. The. But another thing back to of what the director was was discussing. Director Martin do you remember his or something within a constitutional amendment that requires this or. Is that just something I've dreamed up so I don't remember if you're talking about where the accounting for the cost is about ten statute or in in the constitutional amendment I know when we reviewed prior to the changes last time we looked at several things but I don't think that was one of those all have to research that from an eighty eight U. perspective we're we're a gnostic as to when that accounting for you know the expenses of the scholarship administration happens it will change the way we do business so yeah right of course you all just come before us with budget and you know maybe we would out if you for able to do this I don't know if if we want to sit in your overall if we want to have a subsection or something since it was low water area this would have to figure that out so right okay all right thank you. K. Singh no other questions. We will move on to I'm AT. And that would be eighty eighty recommendation for the health of scholarship program. You will begin Dr Martin reckons the station name for the record yes Maria Markham director division of higher education you're recognized. Going to read from the phone here of a I did make two recommendations for improvements to the Arkansas academic challenge scholarship program of both of these I made I believe in the last a legislative session as well one is for and in a in addition to a needs based component to the academic challenge program based on the federally defines contribution from a family we would be a sliding scale that would allow our of low income students strict to receive higher levels of support throughout their academic career as we saw in the slides before we have a pretty healthy net proceeds ballots that we have to draw from and with a declining student population in the state we will have more and more money that we can use to support those students who need it the most of my other recommendation and I've made this one before we actually had a bill drafted last time and we ran out of time in session it didn't get through but is I really need an appeals process for both academic challenge and all of the other scholarship programs we're very directive on the requirements for both eligibility and continual to bility we have a lot of students that you know miss the deadline failed me to eligibility requirement for extenuating circumstances and I'm not granted any discretion to to hear an appeal so I I would like to have an appeals committee much like on the campus when students come forward and have extenuating circumstances and I would like to petition for reinstatement of their scholarships that we would be able to make those decisions when those those cases arise so those are my two recommendations I'm happy to take any questions. Mister you Mr to recover the dues please Senator Hammer you're recognized thank you so the ticket adjuster me get my mind route the previous testimony was that we were seeing a bumper crop right now but anticipated that the revenues will fall off subsequently we might drop down if we go with your first recommendation and and we were to do that and then money begins to decrease or gets tight how would that work as far as you know making sure that there's not something that is is disadvantaging those that may not fit that that thank you for so the bill that was proposed in the last session we have had the governor Hutchinson has approved that to be part of our agency package for the next session and it's identical and there was a clause that it was subject to funds available so we couldn't overspend and so we would we would slide that scale down basically we would reduce the awards based on how much money we had available so would be only as funds increased I just wanna disadvantage one population over try to George and this would this would be the regular challenge would pay first so this would be an additive to that award and it wouldn't be it would not. Move those students behind basically that's it that's what I don't see him all right thank you. Turn Hickey. Some. Something just occurred to me sitting here of course if we're not limited by that constitutional amendment on that and do what they want and I know that you know we may not want to go down this road but it my recollection is we also put state dollars every year into the scholarship program so as far as the state you know the thing is is we're just taken out of one pocket and putting in others so from a budgetary standpoint if we wanted to back that all. If we can come to know of a number a million and a half we could actually back that awful we're putting into the scholarship I believe every year so that we could you know as far as getting that to the session we can tell everybody there's not going to be a net increase out of our general revenue and I think that that would actually fixed the accounting problem too so that just that just occurred to me because I actually forgot about the general revenue that was setting in every year right thank you we get twenty mail the first twenty million that we spend is G. R. so using that account for the expenses of the lottery exactly so you know it it it never thought of that like say to just sitting here you all talking stuff only back to your continuing continuing eligibility requirements the and I guess the thing is is is I want to be very careful whenever we do that and we make sure that if you're going to do a bill or something that it is very specific because of course the revenue from the lottery is up and that's helping us to make sure we're solvent but as you know the one of the main reasons of ways that we did that of course is because of students that were not meeting their eligibility requirements and like the first year so in your appeals process let's just say it say somebody does not maintain their hours or whatever or those type of things what you're talking about that you're going to want to have exceptions owner or is it solely that. Someone had a family member dynamis to date by Friday he said those are the types of things that I would really like to have some discretion over and I get calls from members you know straight God go to college was in an accident I didn't know there was a deadline and wasn't able to put a scholarship on holding laid out for six months and now I don't have any recourse I can't help that kid out even if you know obviously there was a a good reason I'm not I'm not talking about S. A. P. so students to you know made all S. and you know didn't do what they were supposed to do that's not something that typically appeals committee would even here I'm not filed application the committee would look at it and say no that's not. If if there's some way to limit that so those specifics come through the first bills so that we don't have to go through amending and send the or I would do that you know if we could do that you know on the front end just to make sure because you know that that would be a point of contention for lack of a chair and there are circumstances on continuing eligibility where we actually. Canalys are better students so we have students who you know it took summer classes and paid for their own stuff for they took more hours and one semester and they paid for some of those on their own and they get to their final few semesters and they don't need fifteen hours they only need twelve they want to take a grad class and they get caught up in this S. A. P. issue where they're actually an exceptional student but they lose their challenge because of the way the rules are written so those types of things thank you. Generate. Thank you of Dr Markham on the two changes that you've the year envisioning would they also apply on the workforce challenge. for the appeals yes I would like for that to apply to all state scholarships an opportunity to appeal for the the academic challenge plus that's what we called it last time that's just for the that's and that's the kicker basically to the academic challenge for low income students it would not apply for work for shall we talk about that I would love to a explore that but this was just record of a challenge is there is there a specific reason you wouldn't want to apply to the order for the only reason I can think of is students who apply for workforce challenge typically don't have to apply for the fast Fund so we wouldn't have a calculation on their estimated family contribution to go off of your first challenge many times as for non credit training in the fastest on a requirement and whether any changes that you had considered making to the workforce challenge I've I've talked with Senator English several times about that about increasing the amount I'm always willing to increase the amount or if we can broaden the categories yes okay thank you. The no other questions Senator we thank you very much for your thank. Okay members moving on to item else. This is our annual report if you have a copy of it I won't read it. but it to the reports to chairman of the cochairs of a LC. The thing that we're required by state law to comply with thanks we met for three three times this year and the Arkansas lottery oversight committee should continue provide oversight to the operations and activities of the Department finance administration office of the lottery. The Arkansas. Lowery oversight committee should continue review the department of finance and administration offices of Arkansas lottery's implementation of scientific game. The ink interlock ink and Camelot global services term contracts in that we should to continue to monitor the funds available to guarantee Arkansas activist calls you a challenge scholarship workforce challenges or should remain solvent within its parameters nothing this what senator he was alluding to that we want to make sure that we remain solid. I will need a motion for that so moved that he can second thank you very motion together second all in favor say aye. All opposed. No other business we're Jr folks use I'm sorry Senator you get in an. You're right hello. Mister chair also Payton I guess and he's come out of this committee because we try to do joint rules on all the House didn't. Actually pass there's we do pass legislation in the in the last session which requires anything that's going to affect the scholarship lottery to be done by a certain time so C. Majority Leader Richmond down there I just want everybody to remember that so that probably needs to be relate to both the house and the Senate that we do have that legislation and if members have intentions of doing that because there's a there's a a process that we go to that shows you know how much it's gonna cost and that you know it's not going to affect our solvency and it does have to be done within a certain. A certain number of days after the session starts and forgive me I don't mean with that is. So we'll have to research that. Okay. We should limit your question to would come back so please. Mr miscarry FE you all had some proposed rules that didn't get out in time of for public comment a do you want to comment on it or make a statement on it absolutely this was our first time to go through the rule revision process the rules are not been significantly revised at the lottery during the thirteen years since its inception and obviously it's still made reference to the lottery commission it had other things in the rules are no longer consistent with actual practice it never reference that we were part of the FNA and just needed to clean up the entire set of rules we went through the process we did have a public hearing we had one citizen show up we had no objections we thought we were off to the races and found out that we had missed a very important step in the process and that was at the beginning we did not send the draft to be a lar they got and they got a draft they got it much later so we went back we went to emergency rules we ask for emergency rules that was granted for a period of a hundred twenty days and we start the process over our public hearing will be on December the twenty first at nine AM at lottery headquarters we expect that to go smoothly and we will be at that point completing the process and winding that down we fully expect to have those rules finalized completed and implemented in January very good thank you Sir re regular routine cat ran out of time because it session coming up okay our. Any other common questions if not we are Jr.