14 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • JULY/AUGUST 2025 Rooted in Mission, Driven by Innovation: Inside the Transformation of the California Lottery Harjinder K. Shergill Chima Director, California Lottery Paul Jason: The California Lottery is celebrating its 40th anniversary year. How have you used this promotional opportunity to increase sales? Harjinder K. Shergill Chima: We marked the milestone with something we’d never done before—a $40 ticket. That might not sound impressive to states that regularly launch higher-price-point games, but for us, it was a first. The ticket is stunning. It features the iconic California Golden Bear in our signature blue and orange, and we are offering a $2 version as well. It’s a beautiful, beautiful game, and players responded immediately. The $40 ticket has been an absolute hit—awesome, really. You never know for sure until it hits the market, but this one roared out of the gate. Our Sales and Marketing team led by Deputy Director, Sharon Allen, just really nailed it with this ticket. We followed up in June with another California Bear edition—this one with fun scratch-off trivia about Lottery history, which adds a little education to the entertainment. The actual anniversary lands in October, and we’re working on a celebration for our team. As a state department, there are restrictions on the use of public funds, so we’ve had to get creative. But rest assured, the executive team and I are determined to make it happen. We want to celebrate with every one of our employees—across all nine district offices, our warehouses, and HQ. We’ll also be inviting local and state officials and other stakeholders. It’s important that everyone who helps power this enterprise gets to share in the joy of this moment. California is the fourth-largest economy in the world. That’s an incredible concept. Are there any north-star guideposts that guide your approach to managing a Lottery that serves a market of that magnitude? H. Shergill Chima: You’d think the scale of the economy would be a dominant PGRI INTERVIEWS PGRI INTRODUCTION: Harjinder K. Shergill Chima served as Chief Deputy Director of the California Lottery for four years before being appointed Director in 2023. Prior to joining the Lottery, Shergill Chima was Assistant General Counsel at the California Government Operations Agency. Before that, she was an attorney at the California Department of Transportation from 2004 to 2018. She began her legal career as an associate at Reinecke & Daily in 2001, then at Rich, Fuidge, Morris & Iverson Inc. from 2002 to 2004. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from California State University, Sacramento, and a Juris Doctor from Whittier Law School. Sales and net funds for public education have been on a steep growth curve since Shergill Chima joined the California Lottery as Chief Deputy Director in 2019, rising from $6.62 billion in sales and $1.51 billion in net funds in FY 2019-20 to $9.27 billion in sales and $2.29 billion in net funds in FY 2023-24. For context, that’s up from sales of $6.27 billion and net funds of $1.58 billion back in FY 2016. I asked Harjinder what’s changed—what has the Lottery been doing over the last four years that’s so different from the years leading up to 2020.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTg4MTM=