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NASHVILLE - Tennessee lured away the chief of Georgia's state lottery Monday, asking her to do what she's done twice before - build a state's games from the ground up.
Rebecca Paul, who led both the Florida and Georgia lotteries from the beginning after reviving sales as head of the Illinois games, was introduced by Tennessee officials as "the gold standard" and "the best in the business."
"Rebecca Paul is the Pat Summitt of the lottery world," Tennessee Education Lottery Corp. chairman Denny Bottorff said, referring to the successful women's basketball coach at the University of Tennessee.
Paul, 54, who led Georgia's games for a decade, was already the highest-paid lottery executive in the United States, earning $500,000 last fiscal year.
Her package in Tennessee starts with a base salary of $350,000 but could pay her up to $752,500 with incentives based on three conditions: Tennessee's lottery must be up and running by Feb. 17, it must be online 60 days after that, and it must reach $122-million in net revenues in her first year.
Paul made a name for herself after taking over the Illinois lottery in 1985, growing flat sales to a then-record $1.34-billion.
After moving to Florida in 1987 to start the state's lottery, she launched Georgia's games, which began selling tickets in 1993. Last November, Tennessee voters removed a constitutional ban on lotteries, giving the legislature authority to set up games to fund education.