Lottery founder's suicide comes amid criticism

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- George Andersen built the Minnesota Lottery from the ground up, and some who knew him say he looked upon it less like a bureaucrat and more like a proud and protective father.
Andersen committed suicide Tuesday, a day after meeting with a government auditor examining the lottery's operations. He was found outside his home, and an autopsy determined he died of hypothermia in single-digit temperatures after cutting his wrists, Sheriff's Cmdr. Scott Malinosky said.
Andersen's death has focused new attention on criticism that the Minnesota Lottery has had higher overhead costs than comparable state lotteries.
Authorities have not released the note they say Andersen left. The government review of the lottery will not be completed for a few weeks, and state officials will not describe what they have found.
Some associates and legislators said the criticism may have hit Andersen especially hard because he considered the lottery to be more than a job. Andersen, 53, is the only director in the lottery's 14-year history.
"He was the lottery; the lottery was him," said state Rep. Jim Rhodes, the chairman of a committee that deals with gambling. "So [the audit] was personal, I suspect."
The audit began last summer. One friend, Ron Maddox, said Andersen was concerned about the lottery and its employees, although Maddox once told him he was "making a mountain out of a molehill."
"That was one thing that bothered him about the audit," Maddox said. "You attack the lottery, you attack his family."