Mike Jennings

District Sales Supervisor, Arizona Lottery

By NASPL Insights Online

Published May 20, 2025

The most successful people choosing a career in sales are personable and engaging, with a desire to help others reach their own goals – whatever they may be. That also makes them problem-solvers, armed with strategies to help their customers whether they be businesses, consumers or others along the way. Arizona Lottery District Sales Supervisor Mike Jennings knows how to navigate the retail world and what motivations can help reach end users in a crowded consumer marketplace.

“Simply put, Mike just gets retail,” says the Lottery’s Executive Director Alec Thomson. “When you combine that with his passion for the Lottery and the positive impact we’re making in Arizona communities, it’s clear he plays a major role in our success – both in growing sales and supporting our network of more than 3,500 retailers like never before. Our team is fortunate to benefit from Mike’s deep understanding of Arizona’s retail landscape and his ability to connect with retailers, thanks to his experience as a former store owner. Mike is truly making a difference for retail, the Lottery, and communities across Arizona.”

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Mike joined the Arizona Lottery in early 2017 as Territory Manager for the greater Phoenix area. He knew retail – for nearly three decades he owned retail stores in Arizona, and before that in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. After four years in that role, he spent two years as Lead Route Specialist, exploring the potential of having a team of Lottery employees handle all the on-location lottery tasks normally conducted by retailers. He assumed his current role of District Sales Supervisor in February 2023.

As a former retailer, he has experience with retailer motivations. Most retailers want to earn more money, so following both general and lottery-specific best practices is a key success path. Lotteries can make that easier. For example, Arizona puts QR code stickers – about the size of a postage stamp – on in-store lottery equipment. The QR code contains the planogram appropriate for each store, providing placement guidelines for every new game. “That’s a helpful thing; people use it all the time because it comes right up on their phone,” explains Mike. There are other QR codes that provide easy and immediate access to important information for retailers, including helpful “how-to” videos.

Retailers are also motivated with activation and sales contests that provide entries into drawings for gift cards or other small prizes. “You’ve never seen anybody happier than a retail manager or a clerk who gets a winning gift card.” Retailers also love lottery merchandise. “Every day, territory managers visit stores, where the employees are good, hard-working people. We’re expanding our giveaways of pens, notepads and even t-shirts.” Most recently, to celebrate a new game, there were highly-coveted Pac-Man t-shirts. “It’s nice to be able to give these to employees. It may not directly impact sales, but indirectly it helps improve relationships with retailers, which in turn does impact sales.”

Away from the Arizona Lottery, Mike enjoys life with Angela, his wife since 2018. They have a blended family, with three adult sons between them (Mike’s son Tyler, plus Angela’s sons Skyler and Ray). The couple enjoys going out for live music and also spending time at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. Life near a major university provides a number of entertainment opportunities as well. “We live very close to Arizona State University, so we have the benefit of local museums and lots of things going on, like sporting and cultural events and Broadway plays."

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Mike is also an eager volunteer, with much of his energy these days focused on the Kiwanis Club of Tempe, where he has served on the Board of Directors and is a past president. He enjoys involvement in the Kiwanis annual Easter Egg Hunt and Fourth of July celebrations. Additionally, he is sometimes involved in activities within his church.

And he’s always keeping busy – going on walks, hikes or bike rides, and traveling throughout the state on long weekends. Some of those travels have been put on hold, as he also travels back to Illinois to assist his 87-year-old mother.

Mike attended the College of DuPage, and has a Bachelor of Science in marketing from Southern Illinois University.

What brought you to the Arizona Lottery?

My previous career was owning and managing two retail stores in downtown Tempe, Arizona, adjacent to Arizona State University. Both stores were Arizona Lottery retailers as well. I had a great opportunity to sell the business, but I was too young to retire and would need a job. I was in a good place to do something different, and early in that career-changing process, I identified the Arizona Lottery as where I wanted to be. It is a meaningful industry that offers a good work-life balance. I conversed with my lottery sales rep, and she seemed to enjoy her job. Once I sold the business, I kept my eyes open for a job posting, and eventually one came up, and I got hired as a Territory Manager! I figured the Lottery would be good for a few years and then I’d move on to something else. But it’s been more than eight years now, and I still love it here.

What are retailers’ top concerns about selling lottery, and what can lotteries do to address those concerns?

Retailers are most concerned about their bottom line and economic uncertainty. When I opened my first Arizona store, my business partner at the time and I were a little worried about the low lottery commission rate, given the traditional retail markup we were used to on other products. But eventually the light bulb went on, and I learned how easy it was to generate a nice profit with lottery sales, without a big investment. Lottery is also good for foot traffic in stores, not only on the trip to buy a ticket, but on the return trip to cash winning tickets. All that said, the lottery customer or player is looking for a fun experience, and lotteries can help with those experiences by utilizing second chance drawings, players’ clubs, unique games, etc. These experiences stimulate sales, thus allowing the retailers to be profitable.

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Retailers are also worried about theft and losses. Lotteries can offer more security through innovative fixtures and dispensing equipment. Traditional on-counter ticket dispensers are subject to both internal and external theft. Vending machines help, but in a perfect world, I’d like to see ticket-by-ticket activation, so that a retailer doesn’t have a counter loaded with active tickets that are ripe for theft. Tickets that aren’t activated until sold would virtually eliminate the possibility of theft. I know the industry is working hard on solutions, but we don’t have the ultimate solution – at least not at this time.

How do you motivate your sales team?

Building relationships with retailers is probably the most important thing lottery sales representatives can do, and the most successful reps are usually those who have a knack for that. To get there, each person may be motivated by different things – some might value financial rewards while others may enjoy public recognition or opportunities for career growth. I really like some of the recent things we’ve done for our sales team, such as sales and activation contests. We’re doing more of those, where territory managers can win prizes based on sales increases by territory or by retailer.

We have also been using a “meritorious day off,” where an employee can win a day off if they’re identified as core contributor for a special Lottery project or for efforts above and beyond normal workday activities. That can be a real motivator for people to give their best to whatever project or task they may be involved in.

From your perspective, is there anything you wish the Arizona Lottery, or lotteries in general, could be doing differently?

If I had a magic wand, I would like for the Arizona Lottery to be able to sell games online, allowing people to use their cell phones to purchase lottery products. Perhaps when I was a retailer I would have thought twice about online sales, but I’m sure the amount of increased interest in lottery games would generate additional business for retailers. After all, people still have to go to stores, and they will buy lottery tickets from a display or vending machine – because there is entertainment value in buying and scratching that ticket, or getting the paper ticket for the next Powerball drawing.

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I would also like to see more lotteries, including ours, be able to validate and cash tickets on vending machines and use those winnings to purchase other tickets in the same transaction. Currently in Arizona, if a player wins $2, they can’t simply claim the prize through a vending machine and exchange their winnings for another ticket on that machine. If a customer has to go to a customer service counter, they may simply walk away, cash in hand.

With vending increasingly in use for all types of products, I’d also like to see a greater variety of vending machines. It would be very helpful to have various sizes and footprints to fit very different kinds of spaces.

What do you enjoy the most about your job? The least?

I enjoy relationships with my colleagues, the entire sales team and all the different retailers. The most interesting thing about our industry is that you can interact with people from various backgrounds, experiences and cultures, which exposes us to new ideas and ways of thinking. And of course, I love that our primary purpose is to give back to our communities, by sending millions of dollars to programs and organizations doing good in four key areas: higher education, health and human services, environmental conservation, and economic and business development.

As for the least enjoyable aspect, I can’t think of anything! We’re a pretty good organization, we’re well-equipped, and we do a lot of business. People seem to like working for the Arizona Lottery.