Roogow

Buddy Roogow has a tip for people who play Lotto: Don't buy a ticket in the hope of winning the jackpot."The odds of winning are lousy," he said in a recent interview. "How can you say one in 6.9 million is good odds?"Roogow should know. He runs the game.In the 14 months since he took over as director of an ailing Maryland lottery, the former aide to Gov. Parris N. Glendening has engineered significant strategic changes and markedly increased the energy level at the 25-year-old agency.Instead of touting lottery games as a road to riches, Roogow is recasting them as a form of show biz."

Longtime Maryland Lottery Director Buddy Roogow, who has led the agency for 13 years, resigned Tuesday to take a job as executive director of the D.C. Lottery. "An opportunity presented itself," Roogow said in an interview. "I decided it's the right thing for me. It's a new challenge." His departure at the end of November comes as the Maryland agency is vetting bidders for licenses to operate slot-machine casinos in the state, and will eventually oversee the gambling operations when they open.

Facing a 10 percent decline in sales, Maryland's new lottery director wants to boost player goodwill by restoring a toll-free phone number that gamblers can call to get the winning numbers.Buddy W. Roogow, who took over the embattled state agency in the fall, said he hopes to have an 800 or local access telephone number in place by July 1.The lottery used to offer toll-free phone lines but, in a controversial move, replaced them last summer with a 900 number. Calls to the new number cost 45 cents a minute.

Buddy W. Roogow's job is to give away money. As head of the state lottery agency since 1996, he has given away billions. "I do get a little envious at times," he says. "But we all have a certain role to play, and mine is to give away money." Roogow, 58, grew up in Allentown, Pa., and Baltimore, and has spent most of his career in government service. He was county administrator in Howard County and deputy chief of staff for Gov. William Donald Schaefer before Gov. Parris N. Glendening appointed him to oversee the lottery agency.

A computer glitch knocked Maryland's lottery out of commission for 1 1/2 hours early yesterday -- a rare, systemwide shutdown -- and the lottery lost one of its numbers games for much of the day.Buddy Roogow, director of the state lottery agency, said it appears the shutdown was the fault of the contractor that operates the system, Atlanta-based Advanced Wagering International (AWI).If so, Roogow said, AWI would be responsible for paying losses the state incurred.Roogow said he expects losses to be small because the system was down from 5: 30 a.m. to 7 a.m., before many of the state's 4,000 lottery agents had opened for business.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening has tapped one of his top State House aides to take over as director of the Maryland Lottery.Buddy Roogow, who has been a deputy chief of staff since Glendening took office last year, succeeds Lloyd W. Jones, who retired Tuesday because of poor health.Roogow, whose annual salary will be $95,889, takes over the agency only weeks after a new company took over operation of the state's $1 billion-a-year lottery business.Before joining state government in 1991, Roogow was chief administrative officer in Howard County under then-County Executive Elizabeth Bobo.

Longtime Maryland Lottery Director Buddy Roogow, who has led the agency for 13 years, resigned Tuesday to take a job as executive director of the D.C. Lottery. "An opportunity presented itself," Roogow said in an interview. "I decided it's the right thing for me. It's a new challenge." His departure at the end of November comes as the Maryland agency is vetting bidders for licenses to operate slot-machine casinos in the state, and will eventually oversee the gambling operations when they open.

The Maryland Lottery inched to new records in sales and payments into state coffers this year, but its tiny gains left it short of the revenue expectations built into the state budget. The lottery agency released figures yesterday for the fiscal year that ended June 30 showing that sales increased $15 million to $1.32 billion - a 1.1 percent increase. The amount of money paid to the state increased slightly less than $1 million to $444 million, according to lottery Director Buddy Roogow.

A rebounding Maryland Lottery plans to increase payouts this year and is "very likely" to begin offering "millionaire" winners of its flagship Lotto game the option of collecting their prizes in a lump sum, its director said yesterday.Buddy Roogow, who became director in October when lottery sales were in a deep slump, told the Senate Finance Committee in Annapolis that revenues for the fiscal year would comfortably exceed the state's estimate of $334 million.He also outlined a series of ambitious plans to increase the appeal of the state-run numbers games, including a possible move away from the system under which winners of big Lotto prizes collect their winnings in the form of 20-year annuities.

The Maryland lottery has just wrapped up its best year -- thanks to a boom in gambling on games such as keno and Lotto, officials said yesterday.The state took in slightly more than $400 million in profits from the lottery in the fiscal year that ended June 30, a 2 percent increase in revenue from last year and a record.In all, the state sold almost $1.1 billion in lottery tickets, a jump of 2.8 percent over the preceding year, the State Lottery Agency reported.Maryland's success in the lottery comes as many states have seen their proceeds drop in recent years -- due in part to an upsurge in the availability of other forms of gambling, such as casinos and slot machines.

The Maryland Lottery's sales for the past fiscal year topped $1.5 billion, a record high, marking the lottery's 10th consecutive year of sales growth, lottery officials reported yesterday. From July 1, 2006, through June 30, prizes paid to players totaled a record $919 million, an increase of more than $16.5 million over the previous fiscal year. And retailers earned more than $112 million in commissions, an increase of $9.4 million. The lottery will contribute more than $494 million in revenue to the state, slightly less than in the previous year.

Bypassing three significantly lower bids, the state awarded a $2.1 million-a-year contract to WBAL-TV to broadcast lottery drawings, a move officials say will pay for itself in additional promotional exposure. WJZ-TV, which currently airs the lottery drawings, offered to continue for $1.25 million a year, and two other stations, WBFF and Maryland Public Television, also underbid WBAL. But lottery director Buddy W. Roogow said the WBAL proposal gives the state a unique opportunity to promote the lottery on television and its radio stations, WBAL-AM and WIYY-FM, known as 98 Rock.

A new lottery sales system being installed at thousands of convenience, liquor and grocery stores statewide has experienced breakdowns of up to several hours at a time this week, officials said yesterday, causing frustration among store owners and heartburn for avid players in search of their daily numbers. Customers have let store owners hear their displeasure - especially those who can't play the popular Keno game. "You should see the looks on their faces," said John Christopoulos, an owner of Christo's Discount Liquors in Ferndale.

The Maryland Lottery inched to new records in sales and payments into state coffers this year, but its tiny gains left it short of the revenue expectations built into the state budget. The lottery agency released figures yesterday for the fiscal year that ended June 30 showing that sales increased $15 million to $1.32 billion - a 1.1 percent increase. The amount of money paid to the state increased slightly less than $1 million to $444 million, according to lottery Director Buddy Roogow.

State Lottery Director Buddy Roogow got a mostly sympathetic hearing when he appeared before a legislative oversight committee yesterday as it reviewed a highly critical audit report of his agency. While some legislators on the Joint Audit Committee raised questions about the findings, others defended Roogow's management of the agency. Legislative auditors had sharply criticized the lottery agency for serious management and oversight failures, and some of their findings were referred to state prosecutors for criminal prosecution.

Feeling lucky? The Maryland Lottery has come up with a new way for you to bet your money, patterned after the popular TV quiz show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." The game, to be unveiled April 30, is called Let It Ride. Lottery officials hope it will help fill the state's need for ever-increasing gambling revenues as player enthusiasm for the once-mighty Lotto wanes. Lottery Director Buddy G. Roogow said yesterday that he hopes the new game will draw new business by offering players a type of betting unlike any of the state-run numbers games elsewhere in the country.

The Maryland Lottery's sales for the past fiscal year topped $1.5 billion, a record high, marking the lottery's 10th consecutive year of sales growth, lottery officials reported yesterday. From July 1, 2006, through June 30, prizes paid to players totaled a record $919 million, an increase of more than $16.5 million over the previous fiscal year. And retailers earned more than $112 million in commissions, an increase of $9.4 million. The lottery will contribute more than $494 million in revenue to the state, slightly less than in the previous year.

The company that runs the Maryland lottery has obtained a new $30 million bond guaranteeing its performance here, ending weeks of concern that the state would be without such "insurance."The contractor, Automated Wagering International Inc. of Atlanta, said in October that the insurer would not renew the bond when it expires tomorrow because the amount was too high.But the lottery and state legislators had insisted that AWI ob- tain another bond, as its contract requires.Yesterday evening, lottery Director Buddy W. Roogow said he had received a fax of a one-year, $30 million bond that takes effect tomorrow.

"1111" -- the combination of digits favored by Maryland lottery players -- finally came in Wednesday night, delighting bettors but costing the state nearly $7 million. Though the state lottery agency generally ends up in the black in all of its betting games, it takes a financial beating when especially popular numbers are drawn. And no number is more popular than 1111. The state lottery director, Buddy W. Roogow, returned from his daughter's softball practice Wednesday night and checked the lottery agency Web site to see how the evening drawing had gone.

Just how big is the Big Game? Big enough to pay for a downtown stadium, fund the annual operations of the Baltimore Police Department, or give Peter G. Angelos roughly a quarter of the money he says the state owes him from the tobacco settlement. The jackpot for the Big Game lottery played in Maryland and six other states has reached $220 million, making it the second-largest prize in U.S. lottery history. And since the amount of the jackpot is tied to ticket sales, which are expected to reach 100 million in the seven states, lottery officials expect it to be even higher by tonight's 11 p.m. drawing of the five winning digits and one gold Big Money Ball.