La Fleur’s Magazine’s new series—Quote of the Week—features interviews with lottery directors about what’s ahead for their organizations in fiscal 2022. We will feature a different director each week. This week we are spotlighting Stephen Durrell, Executive Director, Kansas Lottery.
What’s ahead for your lottery in FY22?
“Like most lotteries, the last couple of fiscal years have presented an unbelievable variety of new challenges. As we move into the new fiscal year, the Kansas Lottery is hoping to initiate some of the programs we were planning to start pre-pandemic. When everything got put ‘on hold’ we had to table things like restructuring our sales and marketing teams to meet new needs and find ways to innovate, reexamining and retooling our relationships with our existing retailers (which really haven’t changed much since our lottery opened), finding and increasing our presence with ‘social retailers,’ and, finally, continuing to make ourselves accessible to our players through an increasing presence on social media and other formats.”
What book are you currently reading?
“I’m currently reading a couple. I tend to start and stop books a lot. It’s a bad habit. But right now I am reading I Was Right on Time by Kansas City Monarchs great Buck O’Neil as well as The Auschwitz Volunteer by Captain Witold Pilecki. It’s a true account of a WWII Polish officer who willingly got himself sent to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp for the purpose of documenting the atrocities being perpetrated on the Polish people there. It’s the single bravest thing I’ve ever heard, so I’ve reread that a few times. When I need some inspiration, I also periodically pick up Creativity, Inc. about the creation of Pixar Studios.”
Where do you plan to vacation in the next six months?
“What’s a vacation? Kidding. I tend to try and take long weekends, but probably should take a lengthier time off. I am sure our staff would appreciate it if I did. But I will try to get to the lake a few days here and there. Also, some old friends of mine and I have committed to catching a Chiefs game on the road this year. So we will probably try to pick somewhere cool and head there this fall at some point. So, I guess that counts.”