Now that Kevin Geddings, Scientific Games hand-picked lottery commissioner, has resigned all’s right with the world and North Carolina can roll on to lottery heaven. Right? Wrong.

The News and Observer just threw a wet blanket over Act II of the lottery. The News and Observer reports “in one of his final acts as a state lottery commissioner, Kevin Geddings helped determine a list of finalists for the most important job at the new state lottery: its director…among the potential candidates are ‘two men in charge of the South Carolina Lottery, which Geddings helped create.”

The two candidates from South Carolina for the top lottery job told the newspapers “they barely know Geddings.” But then it turned out they served on South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges ‘transition team’ with Geddings – who then went on to be Hodges chief of staff.

Did it trouble Lottery Czar Charles Sanders that Geddings may have left a ‘ringer’ behind?

Not at all. Sanders said, “Kevin had virtually zero impact on this.”

No impact? Geddings was one of three commissioners who voted on the nominees.