One-time state lottery commissioner Kevin Geddings liked to bet on the lottery.
Not by buying lottery tickets, mind you. By betting on whether the bill to create a lottery in North Carolina would pass in the legislature, Andy Curliss reports.
This week, prosecutors entered several 2005 e-mail exchanges as evidence against Geddings, who will be sentenced next week on a fraud conviction. Geddings had hid his employment history with Scientific Games and Middleton, its chief lobbyist, when he took a seat on the lottery oversight board.
In one, Geddings bets Middleton dinner at Morton's in Charlotte that the bill will pass. In another, he says he'll buy him a "Big Boy burger" if it passes.
Geddings then adds: "Get ready to move to Raleigh to do start-up!"
Prosecutors argue that last line is evidence that Geddings intended to help Scientific Games win the lottery contract.
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The e-mails were sent on Aug. 30, 2005. That was the day the state lottery passed in the Senate — its last big hurdle.
Geddings started the e-mail exchange by forwarding a News & Observer article to Middleton about the pending lottery vote that day.
Middleton responded, noting that he thought it was unlikely to pass given that some members weren't going to be there. That had happened earlier and Senate leader Marc Basnight did not push for a vote — and won praise for it from editorial writers across the state.
Middleton did not identify Basnight by name, but wrote to Geddings, "Heard he got the big head when all these articles were written about him 'doin the honorable thing' that he is thinking he won't bring it up during the absences... only his hairdresser knows for sure."
Geddings: "Bet you dinner at Mortons in Charlotte it passes today."
Middleton bets him a dinner that it won't. He adds: "It wasnt good news last night but it may have turned."
Geddings: "It’s a bet... t-bone and I like that souffle thing they do... of course 3 or 4 martinis before... cigar and cognac afterwards." (Ellipses his.)
Geddings followed up later with some insight from the office of Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, the leading lottery supporter in the chamber.
A Democratic Party employee had talked to Rand this morning, Geddings wrote, and "he’s giving odds of 1:1 (yes they have a pool goin')"
Geddings says that if Middleton wins the bet, he's taking him to "the South 29 drive in for the Big Boy burger..."
Geddings then adds: "Get ready to move to Raleigh to do start-up!"
The lottery passed later that day.
Prosecutors say in a court document that Geddings’ intent to assist Scientific Games in obtaining lottery vendor contracts is "best evidenced" by the message to Middleton to get ready to move to Raleigh.
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