New Hampshire Lottery Commission
May 16, 2007
Meeting Minutes:
NEW HAMPSHIRE LOTTERY® COMMISSION
14 INTEGRA DRIVE, CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE 03301
MINUTES OF COMMISSION MEETING
WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 2007
PRESENT:
Paul J. Holloway, Commissioner
Arthur P. Klemm, Jr., Commissioner
Georges Roy, Administrator III
Robert Preston, Games Manager
Maura McCann, Programs Information Officer
Patrick Griffin, Griffin York & Krause, Inc.
Rose Longo-White, Griffin York & Krause, Inc.
Moe Pepin, SGI
Barry Bodell, Administrative Services
Commissioner Holloway called the meeting to order at 10:27 a.m.
1. ACCEPTANCE AND SIGNING OF PREVIOUS MINUTES:
Commissioner Klemm made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Holloway, to approve the minutes of the April, 2007 Commission meeting. So voted, unanimous.
2. TRI-STATE REPORT:
The Tri-State Report was presented by Maura McCann, Programs Information Officer. Ms. McCann updated the group on the $20 Holiday Raffle game as well as the Fast Play game (formerly Add-A-Play) which is now a stand alone game. She stated the raffle game is expected to go on sale November 1, 2007. There will be 80,000 raffle tickets to sell in New Hampshire of the 200,000 total number of Tri-State raffle tickets and the drawing will be held on January 4, 2008. The drawing will be handled through a random number generated draw where a computer program will determine the winning raffle numbers.
Commissioner Holloway noted from the recent sales report that the $5, $10, and the $20 instant tickets are carrying sales, approximately 60% of the lottery's sales.
A discussion continued on the raffle ticket. Commissioner Klemm inquired if New Hampshire could possibly offer its own raffle ticket. Based on the results of other states raffle ticket sales, Commissioner Klemm suggested possibly offering a larger quantity of raffle tickets with a higher top prize by selling a larger amount of tickets.
Also a brief discussion was held on the July 2008 raffle ticket which is in the planning stages. Commissioner Holloway discussed the Tri-State financials and particularly the advertising budgets for all three states. He noted that through the end of March 2007 New Hampshire had spent only approximately 40% of their portion of the Tri-State Ad Budget. The question was asked as to how the rest of the money will be spent. Rose Longo-White responded that a significant amount of media for on air advertising will be purchased from now until the end of June in addition to preparations for optimization of the Replay program and site.
Commissioner Holloway inquired why the two other states' Tri-State budgets are much larger than New Hampshire's Tri-State budget. Ms. McCann responded the Maine Lottery and Vermont Lottery supplement their in-state advertising budgets with the Tri-State advertising budget. Revenue Commissioner Klemm made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Holloway, to instruct the Director of the New Hampshire Lottery to get a similar advertising budget amount as a percentage of sales as the other two states. So voted, unanimous. The minutes are to reflect the request of a substantial increase in advertising dollars from Tri-State. The Commission stressed the importance of additional advertising dollars to help meet advertising needs to comply with the Governor's increased revenue expectations.
3. ADVERTISING:
Rose Longo-White of Griffin, York and Krause, said that radio advertising was planned for the Fast Play game as well as television and radio advertising for instant games and Replay for the remainder of the fiscal year.
Ms. Longo-White stated the survey for the proposed $30 instant ticket is to be launched via Replay by June 1st. Two emails blasts will be sent to Replay members encouraging them to participate in the survey through Replay points award. With the remaining dollars, we will be getting a head start on next year's marketing for a new NH Lottery website, the NH Star advertising program, etc. In FY '08, this will be developed and produced.
Currently we are working on a few smaller initiatives - statewide ranking on the NH Lottery Retailer website, cleaning up the email database for Replay and more.
The Commission requested that the New Hampshire Lottery ask for an additional $150,000 to $200,000 for Tri-State advertising at the next Tri-State Meeting to be spent in FY '07.
4. COMMISSION ACTION ON SAND JAM EVENT:
A discussion was held on the Sand Jam event at Hampton Beach. Commissioner Klemm made a motion to go ahead with $5,000 allocation for the Sand Jam event, seconded by Holloway - no discussion, voted favorably.
5. OTHER BUSINESS:
Georges Roy discussed HB 558 - he researched this and the bill asked that the money from lottery no longer goes to the educational trust fund but to the general fund.
Mr. Roy stated the Fiscal Committee approved yesterday the transfer for the funding for benefits. The audit was not heard and will be heard next month.
Mr. Roy distributed the Monthly Revenue Focus Report produced by Administrative Services.
Mr. Roy delivered the March 31st financial statement which indicated we are on schedule for a net revenue of $79 million. This figure was provided to the House Ways and Means and to the Senate.
6. NEXT MEETING:
Commissioner Klemm made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Holloway, to adjourn the meeting at 11:20 a.m. So voted, unanimous.
Paul J. Holloway, Commissioner
Arthur P. Klemm, Jr., Commissioner