HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Connecticut’s lottery games pumped $667.5 million into the state’s general fund over the two fiscal years that ended on June 30, 2017, according state auditors.
The audit, released Thursday, showed the weekly transfers from the quasi-public Connecticut Lottery Corporation totaled $337.5 million in the year ending June 30, 2016, and $330 million the following year.
The profits represented just over 27% of annual lottery sales in each of those years, according to the auditors.
The report also includes a recounting of several issues involving lottery officials, including an allegation by former lottery security director Alfred Dupuis that he was retaliated against for being a whistleblower.
Dupuis has said he brought to light problems, including the disclosure in 2015 that retailers could illegally access winning numbers of the 5 Card Cash game on computer screens and manipulate the tickets.
A subsequent criminal investigation resulted in the arrests of 15 people.
The auditors found that allegations of “gross neglect” against Dupuis, which resulted in a paid administrative leave, “could have resulted from arbitrary or retaliatory motives.”
But they also said the state’s Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, which has an ongoing investigation, is the appropriate venue to resolve Dupuis’ allegations.
The Lottery Corp. has denied that Dupuis was retaliated against.
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