Many thanks to the reader who provided links to me
so I could share this story with you.

For those of you who may not remember, when Nora Linares, the
first Executive Director of the Texas Lottery resigned, she was
replaced by Lawrence Littwin who did not keep the job for long.
Mr. Littwin began investigating G-Tech's "political contributions"
and was terminated rather suddenly - but - G-Tech paid
Mr. Littwin a reported $300,000.

During a press conference held after he was terminated, he
warned Texans that they were being cheated by the Texas Lottery.
This was reported in the major Texas newspapers.

Folks, he was right - we have been cheated by the Texas Lottery
and our elected officials have done absolutely NOTHING about it.
I still want to know WHY.

Update - 8-31-03: Since posting this story yesterday, I have received
reports that this story and similar stories have run in other well
known & well respected media's. I have now posted links, found at
the bottom of this page, to other stories and court rulings involving
G-Tech, politicians, and lobbyists regarding kickbacks, schemes,
big bucks, computer glitches and the such. Just plain corruption.

Now read on ...

George Wins the Lottery
by Greg Palast

The Bush family daisy chain of favors, friendship and finance goes way back to Dubya’s “War Years.” Junior Bush was a fighter pilot during the war in Vietnam; not in the United States Air Force, where one could get seriously hurt, mind you, but in the Texas air force, known as the Texas Air National Guard. Texas’s toy army, an artifact of Civil War days, is a favorite club for warmongers who are a bit squeamish about actual combat. Membership excused these weekend warriors from the military draft and the real shoot-'em-up in ’Nam.

During the war, Senator Prescott Bush and his son, Congressman George Bush Sr., were more than happy to send other men’s sons and grandsons to Southeast Asia. However, there were not enough volunteers for this suspect enterprise, so Congress created a kind of death lottery: If your birth date was picked out of a hat, off to the army you went. But the Air Guard flyboys were exempted from this macabre draft lotto.

When tested for the coveted Air Guard get-out, young George W. tested at twenty-five out of one hundred, one point above “too-dumb-to-fly” status, yet leaped ahead of hundreds of applicants to get the Guard slot.

Now, how could that happen? Only recently could I get a glimmer of the truth, a by-product of an Observer investigation of a New Jersey company called GTech. This firm holds the contract for a far less deadly and far more lucrative lottery operation than the one for the military draft: the Texas State Lottery.

Follow the money. It’s 1997. Top-gun George Jr. is governor and GTech is in deep doo-doo with Texas lottery regulators. Texas is the nation’s biggest, most lucrative lottery and GTech was about to lose its contract, worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The state’s lottery director was sacked following revelations that GTech had put the director’s boyfriend on the company payroll while he was under indictment for bribery. A new clean-hands director, Lawrence Littwin, ordered an audit, terminated GTech’s contract and put it out for rebid. Littwin also launched an investigation into GTech’s political donations.

Then a funny thing happened: The Texas Lottery Commission fired Littwin.

Almost immediately thereafter, the Bush-appointed commissioners canceled the bidding for a new operator, though the low bidder had already been announced to replace GTech. The commissioners also halted the financial audit, ended the political payola investigation and gave the contract back to GTech.

Why did the Texas government work so hard at saving GTech’s license? A letter to the U.S. Justice Department – I have obtained a copy – provides some fascinating details. The writer points to one Ben Barnes, a lobbyist to whom GTech paid fees of $23 million. Way back in 1968, according to the whistleblower, an aide to Barnes – then lieutenant governor of the Lone Star State – quietly suggested to Air Guard chief Brig. Gen. James Rose that he find a safe spot in the Guard for Congressman George Bush’s son.

Whether the Bushes used their influence to get young George out of serving in Vietnam was a big issue during George Jr.’s neck-and-neck race for governor against Ann Richards in 1994. Bush’s opponents, however, did not know of Barnes’s office’s contact with General Rose, so the story died.

The letter ties Barnes’s knowledge of Governor Bush’s draft-dodging to GTech’s exclusive deal with the state: “Governor Bush . . . made a deal with Ben Barnes not to rebid [the GTech lottery contract] because Barnes could confirm that Bush had lied during the ’94 campaign. During that campaign, Bush was asked if his father, then a member of Congress, had helped him get in the National Guard. Bush said 'no'...George Bush was placed ahead of thousands of young men, some of whom died in Viet Nam...Barnes agreed never to confirm the story and the governor talked to the chair of the lottery two days later, and she then agreed to support letting GTech keep the contract without a bid.”

The whistleblower remained anonymous, but offered to come forward later to authorities. Fingering Barnes, a Democrat, as the man who put in the fix for the Bushes with the Air Guard seemed wildly implausible. The letter remained sealed and buried. No investigation followed, neither Barnes nor the letter writer were called by the Feds.

But then in 1998, Littwin–the discharged reform lottery director–filed a suit charging that the millions GTech paid for lobbyists bought them contract protection. He subpoenaed Barnes. In 1999, facing a grilling under oath Barnes admitted in a sworn statement to the court, that it was indeed him who got George W. into the Air Guard.

Amazingly though, he claimed to have done this nice thing for young George without any contact, direct or indirect, from the Bushes. How Barnes knew he should make the fix without a request from the powerful Bush family remains a mystery, one of those combinations of telepathy and coincidence common to Texas politics.

Littwin asserted that other witnesses can verify that the cash bought the governor’s influence to save GTech’s license. GTech responds irrefutably that it terminated its lobbying contract with Barnes before the 1997 dismissals of the lottery directors–but not before the blackmailing alleged in the anonymous letter. And, although the company denies it maintained the financial connection to Barnes, GTech’s chairman, Guy Snowden, was a partner in a big real estate venture with Barnes’s wife. (In 1995, Snowden was forced to resign as chairman of GTech when a jury found he tried to bribe British billionaire Richard Branson.)

What did GTech get for their $23 million to Barnes, the man who saved Dubya from the war? Can’t say. In November 1999, GTech paid a reported $300,000 to Littwin; in return, Littwin agreed to seal forever Barnes’s five-hour deposition transcript about the Bush family influence on the lottery and the Air Guard.

I’m not complaining, mind you. After all, the Bush family has given us the best democracy money can buy.

(From The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, by Greg Palast. Copyright © Greg Palast 2002, 2003.)

Currently this story appears on Larry Flynt's web site
and the story can be found on page 98 of the
Sept 2003 edition of Hustler.
Larry Flynt's Web Site - see same story as above
(This is NOT the HUSTLER web site)

About Journalist Greg Palast
Guardian Media Group (Home page)
Read the same story as above online here too

Additional Comments
by Dawn Nettles

To add insult to injury, when G-Tech's contract came up for renewal
last year, the Commissioners took their talks behind closed doors. What
the Commission did was remove a paragraph from G-Tech's contract
that enabled G-Tech to make political contributions in the future.

After the Dallas Morning News reported the deletion of this
paragraph, an emergency meeting was called and the paragraph was put
back into the contract forbidding G-Tech to make political contributions.

One can't help but wonder who received contributions during the interim.

Also let's not forget. G-Tech is the one who "really" turned in
4700 survey's that the TLC used to show players were in favor of 6/54.
Yet, highly acclaimed forensic experts questioned the validity
of those surveys.

Noteworthy - During the April 13, 2000 Commissioners meeting,
Rick Johnson, President of the the Texas Food Industry &
Texas Association of Lottery Retailers stated that "he" received
3973 surveys [3505 in favor & 468 opposed] regarding changing
Lotto Texas to 6/54. BUT, the truth was that it was G-Tech
who supplied the surveys to Mr. Johnson. The statements were
"re-clarified" during the May 12, 2000 meeting.

The Commissioners didn't care - they had what they needed
"in writing" to support the change to the game in spite of the "true"
public opposition so, as you know, they changed the game.

This is why the Govenor recently signed HB3459. The law said that
the TLC had to consider public comment for substansive rule changes
so they simply wrote a bill that removed our rights to comment.
[HB3459 applies to Texas joining multi state gaming and
the rules that are to apply to the game.]

They were afraid the people might object to which game Texas
would choose to join and the rules they would apply ... so ... our
elected officials simply decided to take away our right to comment.
Imagine that.

FYI - Some of the states they did decide to "partner" with, will
NOT honor the FOIA Act - a real put down to Texans.

Folks - boycott the Texas Lottery and our elected officials.
As you know, in the past year, they've changed Lotto Texas,
Cash 5 and Pick3 without considering public comment. They
are going too far in their quest to increase state revenues.
- at the expense of unsuspecting Texans -

Think the above story is just sensationalism?
Then check these out and understand,
this is just a fraction of what I have.

Problems in Brazil too. March 2004. Click here.

Branson wins in lottery bribe case - BBC News

British tycoon wins case against US lottery boss (the founding
CEO of G-Tech) - Associated Press
(Story no longer there - Link removed 3/17/04)

Man says he OK'd Bush for Guard - Washington Post (Associated Press)

Commentary - RE: Ben Barnes & G-Tech - Kick back schemes - BeLogical

G-Tech, Barnes terminate contract - Texas News - Abilene Reporter

G-Tech -Bribery and kick back investigation - New Mexico

I.S. GA, G-Tech - Lobbyists and politicans make big bucks
by approving lotteries. Special Reports - Georgia, New York,
New Jersey, Texas, Kentucky

U.S. vs J. David Smith (National Sales Mgr. G-Tech) - Opinion of the Court

G-Tech vs Nora Linares - Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

US Exec Is Big Loser in Britain's Lottery (Bribery) - Herald Tribune Int.

Definitely read "Corruption," "Evolution of Lottery Games"
and "Fate of Lottery Winners"
(Story no longer there - Link removed 3/17/04)

U.S. vs J. David Smith (G-Tech Natl Sales Mgr) - Court of Appeals

The National Lottery - 4 year software glitch not reported by G-Tech

Federal Judge: Barnes must answer questions about Bush - Austin American Statesman

Littwin vs G-Tech, Bush, Barnes - Associated Press, Amarillo Globe News

The Real Kicker
It has been rumored that President Bush is considering a
National Lottery. After reading all of this material, one can't help
but wonder, who would get the contract and who is trying
to get him to start one? Our government certainly is hungry
for money, just how far will they go? And just what all does
G-Tech or G-Tech's cronies have on Bush?