The state lottery has a new director–May Scheve Reardon, a former St.Louis County state representative and former head of the state Democratic party. She had been in the private personal finance business.

Reardon becomes the fifth executive director of the state lottery’s 24-year history, replacing Larry Jansen who quit after a disagreement with the lottery commission just a month ago.

The chairman of the commission says Reardon will “move the agency in a new direction.” She has some general thoughts of what that means. “One of the things we are looking to do is really bring in technology when we work with our marketing and work with our advertising,” she says.

Reardon says she and her husband have been “occasional” users of the lottery and have used it for entertainment purposes. As director, she is disqualified from winning any prizes.

Although saying she has been an occasional player, Reardon maintains she has a passion for lottery and using it to increase funding for education. The lottery generates about 200-million dollars for schools—a small percentage of the total education budget.

Bob Priddy interviews May Scheve Reardon  6:20

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