1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 TEXAS LOTTERY COMMISSION 11 PUBLIC HEARING 12 13 November 4, 2015 14 11:00 a.m. 15 AT 16 TEXAS LOTTERY COMMISSION 17 611 East 6th Street 18 Austin, Texas 78701 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 2 1 APPEARANCES 2 3 ASSISTANT GENERAL COUNSEL, TEXAS LOTTERY COMMISSION: 4 Deanne Rienstra 5 6 PRODUCTS & DRAWINGS MANAGER, 7 LOTTERY OPERATIONS DIVISION: 8 Robert Tirloni 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 INDEX 2 Page 3 Appearances....................................... 2 4 Proceedings....................................... 4 5 Court Reporter's Certificate...................... 7 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 1 (Wednesday, November 4, 2015, 11:05 a.m.) 2 P R O C E E D I N G S 3 MS. RIENSTRA: Good morning. The time is 4 11:05 on Wednesday, November 4th, 2015. My name is 5 Deanne Rienstra, and I am an Assistant General Counsel 6 for the Texas Lottery Commission. With me today is 7 Robert Tirloni, Products & Drawings Manager for the 8 Lottery Operations Division of the Texas Lottery 9 Commission. 10 The purpose of this hearing is to receive 11 public comment on the proposed amendments to the 12 Powerball game, Rule 401.317. In addition to this 13 Public Comment Hearing, the Commission accepting written 14 comments by mail, e-mail, and facsimile. Written 15 comment should be submitted no later than Monday 16 November 23rd, 2015. This hearing notice was published 17 in the Texas Register on October 23, 2015. 18 The primary purpose of the amendments is 19 to conform the Commission's rule changes adopted by The 20 Multi-State Lottery Association to implement a Grand 21 Prize Carry Forward Pool for the Powerball game. The 22 purpose of the Grand Prize Carry Forward Pool is to 23 optimize MUSL's ability to create new record jackpots, 24 Powerball jackpots; to fully fund the MUSL prize reserve 25 accounts; and to offer players faster growing starting 5 1 Powerball jackpots. 2 To accomplish this, the MUSL lotteries 3 offering the Powerball game will contribute a certain 4 percentage of their sales to the Grand Prize Carry 5 Forward Pool. The percentage level will be determined 6 by the amount of the next advertised Grand Prize, as 7 described in the procedures set forth in the MUSL 8 Powerball Group's "Comments" to the Powerball Game 9 Rules. 10 The MUSL Powerball Group will set a 11 maximum balance for the Grand Prize Carry Forward Pool. 12 At any time the Grand Prize Carry Forward Pool exceeds 13 the maximum balance, there will be no contributions to 14 the Grand Prize Carry Forward Pool for the current 15 drawing. The anticipated implementation date for the 16 Grand Prize Carry Forward Pool is January 31, 2016. 17 Let me amend that and say -- no, I'm not 18 going to change that. 19 However, I also want to bring attention 20 to two items: First of all, the rule, the proposed rule 21 was published in 40 Texas Register at page 7347. Due to 22 a Texas Register staff error, a phrase in the last 23 sentence of subsection (d)(1)(B)(v), "sales percentage," 24 that should have been designated as new language was not 25 underlined. The error appears on page 7349. The 6 1 corrected clause has been published as a correction and 2 can also be found on the Commission's website. 3 Number 2, The Multi-State Lottery 4 Association also adopted additional non-substantive and 5 clarifying changes to the Powerball Game Rules after 6 publication of the proposed amendments. These changes 7 do not affect how the game is played but also require 8 conforming changes to the Texas Powerball Game Rules. A 9 redline copy of these changes are available this morning 10 and will be posted on the Commission's website after 11 this hearing. 12 We have not received any witness 13 affirmation forms this morning. Additionally, there are 14 no members of the public present at this time. 15 Therefore, we will take a ten-minute break and then 16 resume the hearing. The time is now 11:10. 17 (Off the record from 11:10 to 11:20 a.m.) 18 MS. RIENSTRA: It is 11:20, and we are 19 back on the record. Having received no witness 20 affirmation forms, we will close this public comment 21 hearing unless anybody else has any comments. 22 (Proceedings concluded at 11:20 a.m.) 23 24 25 7 1 STATE OF TEXAS) 2 3 **************************** 4 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE 5 **************************** 6 7 8 I, DEBBIE D. CUNNINGHAM, CSR, Certified 9 Shorthand Reporter in and for the State of Texas, do 10 hereby certify that the above and foregoing contains a 11 true and correct transcription of all portions of the 12 above-referenced meeting to be included in the 13 transcript of said meeting, and were reported by me to 14 the best of my ability. 15 16 SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN TO under my hand and 17 seal of office on this the 11th day of November, 2015. 18 19 ______________________________ 20 DEBBIE D. CUNNINGHAM, Texas CSR 2065 Expiration Date: 12/31/2016 21 Kim Tindall & Associates 16414 San Pedro Avenue, Suite #900 22 San Antonio, Texas 78232 (210) 697-3400 23 24 25