November 17, 2025
A focus on transparency and equitable community engagement will be among tools used to broaden activity and business relationships.
Several reports claims that state lotteries can have drawbacks for Black Americans. Research has shown that Black people spend much more on lottery tickets than other minority groups, including the total dollar amount and percentage of income.
However, from a business perspective, Khalid Jones is taking action to provide minorities, including Blacks with favorable outcomes as executive director and CEO of the Virginia Lottery. He told BLACK ENTERPRISE that he aims to spur change by focusing on transparency and equitable community engagement.
For its fiscal 2025, he helped the lottery achieve record revenue of over $5.7B. That windfall shows it truly has the capital to boost business prosperity.
Its revenue mostly stems from instant in-state draw games, online lottery games, virtual sports, and national jackpot games like Powerball and Mega Millions. The lotto revealed that all its $901M in current profits supported K-12 public education. Jones was appointed the lottery’s top leader in April 2024.
Simultaneously, Jones stressed that the Virginia Lottery highly emphasizes responsible gaming, reinforcing that through advertising efforts, community events, and direct outreach.
While his lottery’s research shows people from all socioeconomic levels gamble, Jones says he strongly urges them never to play beyond their means or budget. “We understand that the lottery has critics, and as any organization should, we are always committed to listening to ways that we can improve what we do for our players, retailers, and our beneficiaries.”
Commerce-wise, Jones says his goal is to ensure that all businesses have access to the lottery’s resources, including partnership and procurement opportunities.
He laid out several of his initiatives that include:
- Expanding a procurement awareness program to elevate prospects for small, women-owned, and minority (SWaM) businesses. “We anticipate a total of $180M in total procurement spending by next year, of which we expect roughly $43M to go to SWaM businesses.”
He added that the lottery connects with local chambers and other trade groups to inform how SWaM vendors can more effectively work with the enterprise. “I want to make sure that lack of knowledge of opportunity is never an impediment to working with us.”
- Boosting diversification among the lottery’s game providers. As of now, Jones says there are zero Black-led or -owned game providers who supply content to the lottery. Jones says he is making it a point to get those providers on the pipeline. He says that’s a big deal as the Virginia Lottery operates the largest digital lottery platform in America. “I think there is uncovered content we can unlock if we can introduce different voices into the game creation itself.”
- Escalating spending with various Black organizations. That includes advertising more in Black-owned newspapers like the Richmond Free Press and being a sponsor for the Richmond Jazz & Music Festival. Jones plans to maintain partnerships with Norfolk State University and Virginia State University and extend relationships to other HBCUs statewide.
- Continuing a community partnership in supporting the Hampton Roads Committee of 200+ Men Scholar’s Breakfast. He says the annual event backs young Black men from the seven cities of Hampton Roads who graduate with a 3.0 or higher. This past year, Jones was the keynote speaker, a first for a lottery director with the group. “It shows the lottery is committed daily to supporting students, teachers, and school personnel in all parts of Virginia.”
Jones’ background includes over 20 years of experience applying business growth and expanding strategies in the lottery, gaming, and sports industries. Among his stints: A partner in a licensing consulting firm and a lawyer working on large-scale government investigations.
Further, his lottery agenda consists of focusing on attracting a younger audience and higher-valued players. He, too, is tapping into innovative technology, such as implementing AI-powered tools to streamline operations.
He has adopted some tactics from casual gaming platforms like Candy Crush to entirely reimagine how players interact with lottery products.
Altogether, his efforts to share wealth with the Black community and change the lottery could be transformative for the enterprise.
“My charge is to provide funding to K-12 public education,” he says. “I think that we can do that best when we expand opportunities to all communities and avoid exclusivity.”
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