When the Arizona Lottery celebrated its 20th Anniversary in 2001, we thought it would be fun to talk to some of the original employees – those who had been here since day one - about their memories of what it was like during start up.
Through a public initiative in November 1980, Arizona became the first state west of the Mississippi to have a legal, state-administered lottery. The approval margin was slim – 51 to 49 percent. But, according to the “originals,” the excitement in the months to follow made it seem like the vote had been a landslide victory.
Gloria Brown, former Lottery receptionist and first official employee, recalled the Spartan working conditions: “My first job was to go through the Yellow Pages for Circle K and 7-Eleven stores, call them and ask the managers if they wanted to sell Lottery tickets. I received all kinds of responses from ‘No Way!’ to ‘Sounds great, but I have to speak to my boss'.”
By May, however, more than 2,000 grocers, convenience stores, liquor stores, private clubs and independent outlet owners had requested license application forms.
The Arizona Lottery opened its doors July 1, 1981, and the first Scratchers ticket, Scratch It Rich; with a $10,000 top prize, went on sale over the July 4th weekend. The 21.4 million tickets sold out in 10 days!
Former Audit Manager Nena Dawson remembered: “The sales volume was enormous, and all of our systems were manual – manual ledgers, hand-written ticket invoices, cash transactions. Our conference room tables were literally covered with stacks of cash . . . retailers were standing in line with bags of money to buy more tickets. Phoenix police were stationed at both ends of the hallway to direct traffic and ensure security."
“Every time a $10,000 winner claimed a prize, we played the William Tell Overture throughout the building," she said. "It was so much fun!”
Scratchers remained the Arizona Lottery’s only product line for several years. To give players other options, in 1984, we introduced our first online jackpot game, The Pick, which was an immediate success. Sales for the first year topped $26.6 million. Subsequent additions included:
1991- Fantasy 5, 1994- Powerbal, 1998- Pick 3, 2007- Pick 5.
Today, the Arizona Lottery has certainly "modernized" — our accounting is infinitely more sophisticated, and in 2007 we streamlined our online game offerings with the Pick Family — The Pick, Pick 3, and Pick 5. While nothing can top a sell-out of over 21 million tickets in 10 days, we have progressed to four online games and a wide variety of $1, $2, $3, $5 and $10 Scratchers on the market at one time.
And, naturally, we are very proud of the fact that over the past two decades, we have raised almost $2 billion for statewide projects and programs.
