Providing Lasting Value, and Fun, in the Evergreen State
- Jul 20
- 10 min read
Updated: Jul 21
The creative team at Washington’s Lottery makes the most of its opportunities, which are on display as the Lottery hosts the 2026 NASPL Professional Development Seminar.
By Patricia McQueen
Published July 21, 2026
The official name may be Washington’s Lottery, but since 2012 the organization has also been known as the Department of Imagination. What started as an innovative marketing campaign evolved into a whole new identity for the Lottery, which began ticket sales in 1982. In fact, in December 2020, the first Department of Imagination retail store opened in a Spokane mall, a location which to this day remains open and continues to also serve as one of five regional offices.
The Department of Imagination is clever branding for Washington’s Lottery, which has contributed some $5.3 billion to the state since its inception, paid more than $12.9 billion in prizes, and provided retailers with more than $1.2 billion in commission revenues. Initially, profits were sent to the state’s General Fund to support various programs as needed, but changes over the years have led to the current beneficiary structure. Now leading the way is the Washington Opportunity Pathways Account (funding various education initiatives), followed by allocations to the General Fund and the Economic Development Account. Importantly, the Problem Gambling Account also receives a share of revenue annually.
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For six straight years, ticket sales have exceeded $900 million, and three of the last four years (including the recently-completed FY26) have topped $1 billion. Those numbers were noted by Director Brian Bennett, a lawyer who took the helm last November after a career in both private industry technology and public service. “I was impressed that we sell a billion dollars’ worth of lottery tickets a year,” he says, especially when considering that the Lottery doesn’t have the ability to use what are considered basic technologies these days. For example, lottery tickets can’t be sold online or through an app, and players wanting to participate in second-chance drawings still have to mail in their entries the old-fashioned way. Nor can there be more than one daily drawing for each draw game.
Although these restrictions mean there are challenges for sales growth, the Lottery is taking advantage of available opportunities. That includes the recent expansion of vending into ferry terminals and vessels (Washington has the largest network of ferries in the U.S.), and significant retail upgrades after a contract extension with Brightstar Lottery.
On the game front, there is recent success with the 2023 launch of Cash Pop and the St. Patrick’s Day Raffle earlier this year. The Lottery’s first $50 scratch game is expected before too long.
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All About Games
For several years, Washington’s draw game portfolio has included the multistate games Powerball and Mega Millions, plus local games Lotto, Hit 5, Pick 3, Match 4 and Daily Keno. Cash Pop, introduced in October 2023 at the $5 price point, has been a welcome contributor to sales despite the limitation of just one drawing per day.
Earlier this year, the St. Patrick’s Day Raffle was the Lottery’s first raffle in many years, with 250,000 tickets available at $15 each and a $1 million top prize. While the tickets didn’t sell out, it was successful and profitable enough that another will be offered next spring – especially after receiving a lot of good feedback from players. Director of Sales and Marketing Randy Warick explains that the price point will be studied in more detail, and updates to the gaming system should allow interim drawings. “That will bring in more early player participation and generate more excitement at retail.” He added that the raffle concept helps bring new players into the market who will hopefully try other games as well.
Later this year will bring the Lottery’s first $50 scratch game, with the launch strategy still in development. “It’s not very often that we get to add a new price point,” explains Instant Product Manager Gaylene Gray. “We’re very excited to be able to expand and see where it takes us.” The ticket design is still a work in progress, and will include features that will make it stand out in the market as a premium game.
It will lead an instant game portfolio that has a lot of recent success at other price points, from $1 to $30. One good strategy was moving extended play games from $2 to $3. Another is bringing back game families. Loteria is the most successful family by far, offered at five price points from $2 to $20. “It is our number one game statewide – people love it!” exclaims Gray. She attributes that both to the “authenticity” of the theme and the ease of play through matching pictures.
Frenzy is another recent family, going up to $30 as a higher-end product. “We launch these families in January as a post-holiday ‘reset’ for our portfolio of games.”
Merchandising family games together is desirable, and the sales team works closely with retailers and corporate accounts to achieve that goal, whether on-counter or in vending. Although other games are placed by price point, the families are grouped together. Assistant Director of Sales Lance Anderson and the Corporate Account Managers have been very successful communicating this direction to the store level.
One game that breaks new ground is the $10 Keys and Cash, launched in June. Offering six top instant-win prizes of a Ford Bronco model valued up to $70,720, it’s a way to ease the burden on both players and lottery staffers (who would have to manage mail-in entries for second-chance drawings). “It’s so very exciting for people to instantly win a vehicle on a scratch ticket,” notes Gray. “So far we have had a great response from our players.” At this writing, three of the six vehicles have already been won.
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Marketing Success
As the Department of Imagination, the Lottery works closely with its ad agency VML to create fun, imaginative content that reaches current players and brings in new players. “Winning isn’t an everyday experience for everyone,” says Assistant Director of Marketing Kathi Patnode. “We want to make sure that people are enjoying the fun of playing and imagining what they would do if they won.”
The agency also manages social media, although as with advertising, Patnode and her team work with them very closely. “We all make sure we’re in alignment with our brand and our values,” emphasizes Warick. “It’s very collaborative.”
As with any lottery, beneficiary awareness is a critical part of the marketing strategy. Historically, Washington’s beneficiary marketing efforts focused on the total dollar amounts raised each year. With revenues going to several causes, sometimes the message gets lost. For the past couple of years, the emphasis has been on a specific fund recipient of the Washington Opportunity Pathway Account – the Washington Student Achievement Council, which provides college grants, scholarships and funding for vocational training. “This year, we helped them create testimonial videos with people who have actually received a college grant, and we have been sharing them since April on our social channels,” explains Patnode. “We’ve seen a huge lift in the number of visitors to our website beneficiary page, where they can learn about where the money goes, and we provide a direct link to WSAC for people to take action to see if they qualify to receive a grant that could impact their lives and their communities.”
On the promotions side, the Lottery’s own team plans a year in advance, looking for ideas that can have a significant impact on sales. To support the $5 Mega Millions change last year, for example, there was a Stacks of Scratch promotion. With each Mega Millions ticket purchase, a voucher was printed that players could mail in to enter two drawings for packs of scratch tickets. It was a tremendous success, with over 30% of printed vouchers entered.
Using the Lottery’s own products as promotional prizes helps with overhead costs, and even more importantly helps introduce regular draw players to scratch games. That was clearly evident with the number of players who asked how to play the scratch games they won!
Other successful promotions center on retail locations. There are Happy Hour promotions, and promotions that look for softer sales days or times to add some additional incentive for players. Almost without fail, these types of promotions generate incremental business, capturing impulse purchases when players are looking for convenient opportunities. “These are all things that our promotion teams do really, really well here,” emphasizes Anderson.
There is also a successful loyalty program, My Lottery 360°. Players can earn points by submitting eligible non-winning tickets through the app or on the website; points can also be earned by completing achievements. Those points can be redeemed for a variety of items from the rewards catalog. Members can also check their tickets, set email or push notification preferences to receive jackpot information and winning numbers.
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Retail Opportunities
The Lottery recently signed a seven-year extension of its gaming contract with Brightstar Lottery, which will bring a full hardware and software refresh. First up will be important retail upgrades, including new vending machines. With vending penetration already high in most of the larger accounts (corporate and independents), a key goal will be optimizing locations that might still benefit from a second or even third machine. “Our staff understands the market and are out there finding opportunities,” says Warick. “And our corporate accounts get it – they see the benefits of multiple selling units.”
For example, Fred Meyer (Kroger) superstore locations typically begin with one vending machine. Then a second is placed, and eventually a third in some places. If the first was doing $10,000 a week, then the goal was to have good incremental sales from additional units. “In some of these locations, we are seeing that first $10,000 unchanged, and the second and third units are also generating $10,000 each,” marvels Warick.
Still, the Lottery’s regional sales managers sometimes find new accounts. “They aren’t afraid to call on anyone,” notes Warick. It was one of those managers who asked why lottery wasn’t on ferries. After all, Washington State Ferries operates the largest ferry system in the United States, with a fleet of 21 vessels carrying more than 23 million passengers annually. Combined with other operators offering specific routes in the region, that’s a lot of people on a daily basis. Ferries are vital in the Pacific Northwest, connecting residents of several populated islands with the mainland and supporting those daily commuters along with businesses and tourists. “Some of these vessels see four million riders a year. That’s a lot of people who are sitting around looking for something to do.”
Likely the first American lottery to add vending machines to vessels, Washington will continue to upgrade these units as the new machines come in. The ferries and terminals are part of a larger network of Lottery-Owned Locations (LOLs) that also include airports and malls – any locations where people gather are prime opportunities for vending. The Lottery also has five regional offices (one in a shopping mall) in addition to its headquarters in Olympia, so the new machines will replace existing machines in those locations as well.
Those regional offices serve another important purpose beyond selling and cashing tickets. With direct player interaction, these offices actually provide great opportunities to learn more about players than any survey ever could. “Lottery employees don’t really get to be right in front of the consumer on a daily basis; we rely on our retailers to carry that message,” says Anderson. He acknowledges that the five offices provide a small sample size, but it’s a valuable one.
The regional offices are so important that there are even small sales incentives, sometimes just recognition. “There’s a lot of ‘competition’ between the offices, which really helps morale as well. That’s important.”
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One big network improvement recently implemented was activating tap pay on all vending machines, which are cash or debit only. “It might not sound like much of an improvement over using cards or cash, but it’s huge for us,” explains Warick. Tap pay is especially valuable in capturing younger adult demographics, who use their phones for everything. “We are really excited to have that, and we fully expect that to grow.”
And because the rollout of tap play took time across more than 2,200 vending units, there was no advertising its availability. Yet players found it. “Each day we were finding that our tap transactions were growing.”
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Keeping It Responsible
Through it all, the entire Lottery team emphasizes responsible play. Patnode thinks the biggest impact comes from the way RG is promoted on social platforms. “RG can seem boring to people, with static messages about available resources and reminders to keep it fun and know your limit.” Washington has changed that up recently, providing content that is more edgy to have people lean in and pause, where they otherwise might keep scrolling.
For example, a July social campaign includes a funny video of people filling their mouths full of hot dogs. Then comes the messaging about knowing your limits and keeping it fun, and ultimately how to find resources. “We’ve seen a lot more engagement and traffic to our responsible gambling website page, and that’s exciting to see because it means there’s more awareness.”
Lottery employees are recertified in RG every year, and there is also a robust RG training program that the district sales reps share with their retailers, who are aware of the Lottery’s social media campaigns as well.
There’s even more. “RG is also an important lens that we look through when we offer a new game, like the Raffle,” says Patnode. “We need to ensure that we are being responsible while we are creating promotions or new games. That’s an important aspect of the Lottery.”
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Looking Ahead
Clearly, the Department of Imagination is staying true to its mission of ensuring that players have fun while bettering Washington’s communities – despite the inevitable challenges.
The Lottery has been longtime partners with its major sports teams, including the much-beloved Seattle Seahawks. That team’s successful Super Bowl run during the past NFL season brought that partnership to the forefront. “We were able to have a number of Seahawks events, and a lot of people came out for our playoff ticket giveaways,” says Bennett.
Certainly reaching a billion dollars in sales again in the just-ended FY26 was reason to celebrate, as are sales inroads with ferries, new games like Raffle, and adding a $50 scratch ticket to the lineup.
While it’s unlikely that the limits on game frequency and online participation (even just to enter second-chance drawings) will be removed anytime soon, Bennett is all for helping the state through its current fiscal crisis while keeping a positive atmosphere throughout the agency. He’s trying to find ways that the Lottery can work more efficiently, perhaps passing along any ideas for saving to other state agencies. There has been a bit of operational consolidation, for example, and ensuring that any cash being held is earning interest. “We’re trying to find ways to both make money and save money,” he explained, adding that some of the Lottery’s programs have even earned state awards.
“I’ve really been pleased so far with how it’s going, and we’re excited about bringing everyone to Seattle this month for the NASPL Professional Development Seminar!”
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