Five-person board appointed for Mississippi Lotto

Four men and one woman have been appointed to the Mississippi Lottery board by Governor Phil Bryant. Following approval by the state senate in the next legislative session, the board will be tasked with hiring a CEO and other leadership for the new Mississippi Lottery Corporation along with making agreements with multi-state lotteries.

The five appointees will work unpaid on the lottery board of directors in five-year staggered terms. The appointees are:

Kimberly LaRosa- CEO and president of the Renaissance Community Loan Fund

Philip Chamblee- Executive Director of the Mississippi Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Stores Association

Mike McGrevey- Deputy Director of the Mississippi Development Authority

Cass Pennington- Former educator and leader of Indianola and West Tallahatchie school districts

Gerrad Gibert- CEO of Venture Technologies

Philip Chamblee provides the most intriguing appointment on the board with his position as Executive Director of the Mississippi Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Stores Association, due to their direct involvement and potential benefit with a state lottery being run in Mississippi. All the other appointees have clear separation in their professional interests.

The board is expected to get the Mississippi Lottery Corporation up and running in time to get a state lottery in Mississippi operational as early in 2019 as possible. Although this would be a very quick turnaround from state approval in August of this year, it is believed to be a reasonable and achievable timeline.

It is estimated that the state is missing out on over $10 million in lottery sales from the past week due to the extremely high Mega Millions jackpot that has rolled over to a record $1.6 billion and could well rollover again on Tuesday October 23^rd to over $2 billion. Mississippi residents have been seen piling across state lines into neighbouring Louisiana to buy Mega Millions tickets for the record drawing.