PROVIDENCE — A key Senate committee yesterday recommended the reinstatement of Gerald S. Aubin as director of the multimillion-dollar gambling agency that oversees Lottery-run Keno, Powerball and scratch ticket sales statewide and slot operations at Newport Grand and the former Lincoln Park greyhound track now known as Twin River.

Yesterday’s unanimous vote by the Senate Committee on Constitutional and Regulatory Issues to recommend Aubin’s reinstatement may be followed by a confirmation vote, by the full Senate, as early as today if Senate leaders proceed with their plans to suspend their usual public-posting requirements to accommodate a senator — Republican David Bates of Barrington — who wants to vote on the Aubin nomination before leaving on a trip.

In an unusual move, another longtime member of the defunct Lottery Commission — state Rep. William San Bento, D-Pawtucket — was allowed to call in his words of support for Aubin, by telephone, from a hospital where, committee chairwoman Maryellen Goodwin said, he was visiting a relative. His voice was aired by speaker phone.

But the outcome was never in any doubt, after Goodwin personally vouched for the “tremendous job” that she said Aubin had done as the top man at the Lottery Commission before it was dismantled two years ago.

As a onetime member and chairwoman of the Lottery Commission, Goodwin, D-Providence, said she could say without hesitation that there was “never so much as a hint of scandal” at the Lottery while Aubin was in charge.

While Aubin has, in fact, been running the day-to-day operations of the Lottery, the governor named Department of Administration Director Beverly Najarian acting director after the legislator-dominated Lottery Commission was dismantled in the name of separation of powers, and a Division of Lotteries was created within the DOA to take its place.

In the interim, Aubin, who currently makes $115,585 a year, was given the title “acting chief operating official.”

At the time, Jeff Neal, spokesman for Governor Carcieri, explained the governor’s choice of Najarian as the interim director this way: “It’s a very important part of state government, and we need time to make sure we’re appointing the right individual. …We want to make sure we’ve reviewed our options and get the right person.”

Asked in recent weeks what had prompted Carcieri’s decision to reinstate Aubin as director now, Neal said the governor “believes that Mr. Aubin has done a good job as the day-to-day head of the state Lottery.”

He said the move was also precipitated by the legislature’s willingness to eliminate a proposed five-year term for the appointment.

“Governor Carcieri did not believe that the creation of a specific term was appropriate,” Neal said. “At the governor’s urging, the General Assembly last year amended the statute to eliminate the term. As a result, the governor was then free to move forward with the appointment of Mr. Aubin,” he said.

A former deputy police chief in Providence, Aubin did a short stint as executive director of the Rhode Island Municipal Police Training Academy before he was nominated by then-Gov. Lincoln Almond — and subsequently hired by the former Lottery Commission as its director in May 1996, after the commission’s tumultuous firing of former Lottery Director John P. Hawkins, a onetime Senate majority leader.

In addition to earning a bachelor’s degree from Bryant University, Aubin, 53, of Narragansett, is also a graduate of the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Va.

Appearing before the Senate committee, former Lottery commissioner Robert A. Mancini noted that the state’s bounty from Lottery activities grew from $96 million a year to $323 million during Aubin’s tenure. He attributed the growth, in part, to “innovative marketing programs,” but also to Aubin-led moves to “depoliticize” the choice of video-slot providers by introducing a “sense of competition” among the video-terminal suppliers, and rewarding with licenses those who performed the best.

On his watch, his résumé notes, the Lottery became the first state agency in Rhode Island to receive a certificate for “excellence in financial reporting” from the Government Finance Officers Association.

Aubin acknowledged yesterday that Lottery revenues have been down this year, not even meeting the reduced expectations that the state official revenue-estimators placed on them last November. Through the end of February, Lottery sales were off $69 million on a year-to-year comparison. The state’s share of that lagging revenue was $12.7 million behind what it had been at the same eight-month point in the previous fiscal year.

Aubin attributed the drop-off to “major construction issues” at Lincoln Park during its transformation, by its new owners, into Twin River; and pitched gas prices that led drivers to pay with credit cards at the pump rather than come inside the gas station where they would be more inclined to buy a Lottery ticket. But that said, Aubin told the senators, the gap between collections and expectations has narrowed since the grand opening of the renovated Twin River.

kgregg@projo.com