Governor picks attorney to lead Arkansas Scholarship Lottery

Arkansas Scholarship Lottery tickets are shown in this file photo.
Arkansas Scholarship Lottery tickets are shown in this file photo.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson has appointed attorney J. Eric Hagler as the director of the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery, the state Department of Finance and Administration announced this morning.

“The lottery director requires a wide skill set, including the ability to remain focused on the program’s key goal of providing scholarships to Arkansans,” Hutchinson said in a news release. “Eric brings this to the Scholarship Lottery. We are proud to bring Eric home to Arkansas and look forward to him leading a great team of employees.”

Hagler started his law career 31 years ago as an Arkansas deputy prosecuting attorney, followed by creating his own law firm, presiding as a magistrate judge in Bentonville and serving as special associate justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court in 2003.

Hagler, who was a principal consultant for the Eric Hagler law firm in Huntington Beach, Calif., started work today, finance department spokesman Scott Hardin said.

He succeeds Bishop Woosley, who resigned after eight years of leading the lottery.

Hagler will be paid $165,681 a year, Hardin said. Woosley was paid $176,850 a year.

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