Ask named GCD administrator
By Cole Boehler
Montana Atty. Gen. Steve Bullock announced June 26 the appointment
of Rick Ask to the administrative post at the Gambling Control Division
(GCD). Ask has been the division's Operations Bureau chief for the past
10 years and had been serving as acting administrator since Gene
Huntington's retirement at the end of December.
Following the appointment, Atty. Gen. Bullock told the Montana
Tavern Times, "Rick brings a considerable breadth of experience to the
administrator's position. Fortunately for us, when Gene Huntington
retired shortly before the legislature convened, Rick was willing to
step into the role of acting division administrator and he did a great
job.
"Rick is a dedicated public servant," Bullock continued, "who
understands the gambling business inside and out, so I'm very pleased
that he has agreed to continue as part of the Department of Justice
management team.
"I'm confident that his long experience, professionalism and solid
working relationships across the industry will be positive for the
division, the department and for the people and businesses of Montana."
Ask joined the GCD at the time of its creation back in 1989 when it
was still under the Department of Commerce. It later became a division
of the Department of Justice. He has served under four attorneys
general and four division administrators.
Ask was born, and graduated high school, in Roundup, then earned a
bachelors degree in Business Finance in 1978 and a Masters in Public
Administration in 1988 from the University of Montana. He has been
active in the North American Gaming Regulators Association and began a
term as its president in 1993.
Ask is married to Tanya, who is a vice president for government
affairs for New West Health Services. They have three children: James
is a Naval Academy graduate and an officer in the U.S. Navy; Ben
continues to pursue an undergraduate degree in Missoula while he is
employed at the airport there; and daughter Signey, just married July 4
(Ask says as a result he's "broke and still tired"), has a degree in
psychology and is employed by A.W.A.R.R.E. Inc. helping troubled youth.
Atty. Gen. Bullock, who worked under former Atty. Gen. Joe Mazurek,
has known Ask for better than a decade. The two also worked closely
together during the 2009 session of the Legislature while Ask was
acting GCD administrator.
Gaming industry leaders hailed Bullock's choice of Ask as an astute
one, pointing to his experience, knowledge and reasonableness as
important attributes he will bring to the job (see sidebar).
As far as Ask is concerned, the revolution in gaming regulation is
over, and what remains is the evolution, largely technologically
driven, of regulatory processes and procedures with an eye focused
constantly on efficiency and effectiveness.
Bringing the accounting and compliance procedures into the 21st
Century was a decade-long struggle Ask cites as being the most
momentous of his career, evolving conceptually from a proposed
mandatory "dial-up" system in 1995 to today's Internet based voluntary
reporting system. This system is now covering almost 90 percent of the
machines in operation and ties into the Department of Revenue's GenTax
system.
Ask said a natural attrition, perhaps spurred by changes in
business ownerships, will eventually have all machines reporting
on-line. Soon, no operator running multi-game machines will be able to
report manually.
"It's working well for both the state and the industry," Ask said.
"It's a good solution. We still run into (a problem with the new
system) occasionally, but where we're at now we figure out the cause
and its prevention, then implement a solution. It's pretty minor
anymore."
Ask said he is planning to put a "working group" together in the
fall to address further system improvements and advances, especially as
it applies to licensing functions. "There is progress we can make,
there's more to do," he says.
Ask said he is "excited" about the latest round of technological
innovation to machine design: replacing impact printers and paper audit
rolls with alternative storage devices (ASDs) such as secure "thumb
drives."
"The changes in technology are driven by the industry," Ask said.
"The manufacturers are highly innovative." The ASDs "are a new plane
for compliance and auditing purposes," he said, that will produce "more
efficiency, more effectiveness."
"The reduction in record retention requirements has been
significant," he said, first under the automated reporting solution,
and now potentially with the move from printed to digital data storage.
"For larger operators, this is very important," he added. He
acknowledged the bulky and cumbersome paper audit rolls were
universally loathed by industry and regulators alike.
Ask said some older machines with slower processors could encounter
more lengthy boot-up times as all the stored data needs to be verified
at start up, but hopes all manufacturers will be encouraged to move to
the high speed platforms. "We're going to run into issues like
that" as the technology changes, Ask said.
As for Ask's outlook for the division's future, he said he
anticipated steady progress and a continuation with the culture of
co-operation fostered by his predecessors.
”Our intention is that we are going to keep this (agency) moving
forward and maintain our good working relationship with industry. They
help us identify improvements to our systems.”