Washington Lottery finance director: tightening account targets generated more than $1 million in additional revenue

At a Productivity Board Coffee Klatch webinar, Todd Stebben, director of finance for Washington’s Lottery, described a finance-team innovation that he said generated more than $1 million in incremental interest in its first year.

Stebben told Productivity Board manager Greg Menager that the change began with a review of the Lottery’s roughly eight bank accounts and a decision to lower baseline target balances where safe, then put previously idle funds to work so they would earn interest. “We lowered that significantly so that those monies now are working for the lottery and working for the state and our beneficiaries to generate interest income,” Stebben said.

Why it matters: the Lottery processes large volumes of money on behalf of the state. Stebben said the agency handles about $1 billion annually and directs funds to winners, retailers and statewide priorities — including the Washington Opportunities Pathway Account (WAPA), which supports education and training. Small improvements in cash management, he argued, can therefore produce meaningful revenue for state priorities.

Stebben described testing the change with a controlled transfer and removing barriers to staff experimentation to reduce fear of punishment. He said the proof-of-concept returned over $725,000 in the first eight months and more than $1,000,000 in the first 12 months after implementation, results that the team later documented in a submission to the Productivity Board that earned recognition and cash awards.

The finance director framed the work as incremental, discipline-led improvement rather than a single dramatic fix: “Not one big heroic moment, rather disciplined improvements that keep stacking wins month in and month out,” he said.

Budget context: Stebben said the Lottery faced a 6% budget reduction and responded with measures including zero-based budgeting and unit resizing; he cited reductions in planned spending of more than $2,000,000 and cited individual location savings (one location he said lowered costs by about $250,000 and others combined saved roughly $120,000 annually).

What’s next: Stebben said the team continues to track and report results quickly so changes are transparent to stakeholders, and he credited collaboration with OFM and banking partners for enabling some operational changes. Menager said the Productivity Board will share materials from the session and that the board’s next Coffee Klatch is scheduled for April 9 at 10 a.m.

Reporting notes: Numbers above reflect figures stated in the webinar by Todd Stebben and Greg Menager. Where the transcript used nonstandard formatting for large figures, this article presents rounded or comma-formatted values for readability and clarity.