Colorado Lottery director to retire at year’s end

Colorado Lottery Director Abel Tapia plans to retire at the end of the year.

Tapia told The Pueblo Chieftain on Thursday that he wants to spend more time with family and grandchildren.

The former state representative and senator from Pueblo was appointed lottery chief in July 2010. He says he had planned to lead the lottery for three to four years and had been weighing retirement for the last year.

The announcement comes as two vendors that lost out on a multimillion-dollar contract to provide technical and retail network services to the Colorado Lottery raise questions about the selection process.

Tapia says his decision to retire is unrelated.