First black lottery operator

In a city that pulls thousands and thousands of individuals all over the world, Emmanuel Bailey’s success story began in Washington. He began from humble beginnings, growing up with a single mother and moving from rental to rental throughout town and the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area for many of his childhood. At the peak of the drug epidemic, he saw his hometown affected by crime and poverty, and when he returned from college, his town was considered the murder capital of the country. Yet despite these adversities, he all the time worked hard and looked to a brighter future – a super his mother instilled in him since he was a small child.

As Bailey began his journey to a brighter future, he realized that to achieve success, he needed to pursue a university education. Through these pursuits, he became the primary member of his family to attend and graduate from college. He enrolled at Eastern Kentucky University, earning a bachelor’s degree in business administration. While at EKU, he set out to realize the high level of success his mother expected of him in all areas. After graduating from EKU, he obtained an Executive MBA from the Business School. Robert H. Smith on the University of Maryland.

Emmanuel achieved early success within the financial sector. Over the following 25 years, he rose through the ranks, starting as a branch manager at Citizens Bank of Maryland and ending with vice chairman of Fannie Mae. These roles provided him with invaluable experience as a seasoned entrepreneur and leader. After all the pieces he had achieved at Fannie Mae, it was time to strike out on his own.

Seeing the potential within the lottery industry, Emmanuel founded an operations and management services company to run lotteries more efficiently and effectively. Key service providers (VSC) has management experience in all facets of the state lottery contract, including providing direct supervision and management of lottery agents, retail systems, implementation and maintenance of gaming equipment, and oversight of the performance of the central gaming system. He worked in various positions in state lotteries across the country to achieve real institutional knowledge of the ins and outs of the brand new industry he was entering. Combining his latest knowledge with business sense, he decided to win contracts with the most important names within the industry.

The lottery industry is amazingly competitive, and contracts are sometimes awarded to large national firms. However, as Emmanuel grew his business, hiring experienced staff and expanding VSC’s capabilities, he began to make a reputation for himself as a trusted and talented operator within the industry. He soon partnered with titans in the sector and eventually became the one black business owner to operate a state lottery in your entire United States, in his home “state” of Washington.

But his success didn’t end there.

Bailey continued to hone his expertise, turning VSC right into a multi-million dollar company with over 100 employees. He was honored with the 2020 North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL) Powers Award, which he won based on nominations from the DC Lottery itself. In its nomination, the District of Columbia said Emmanuel “is far from a stereotypical executive… and will ensure that the DC Lottery continues to operate every day and that our company remains profitable into the long-term future.” It continues to grow its business by opening a VSC office in Maryland and searching to expand its geographic reach.

Despite all his success, Emmanuel never forgot his family and his connection to his community. He stays deeply committed to giving back to DC communities. He has donated a whole lot of 1000’s of dollars to varied local DC-based organizations supporting programs comparable to school athletic and humanities departments, educational support and health care. He also served and continues to serve on the boards of many local organizations.

Now Emmanuel looks to the longer term. Always striving to enhance his business, Emmanuel works to enhance operations and improve the efficiency of the DC Lottery, while also giving back to the community and creating more opportunities for young children growing up in circumstances like his own. While his feet are firmly planted within the DMV, his ambitious and entrepreneurial spirit has his eyes on expansion into additional states. He says his best achievement, above all his other achievements, is that he helped his mother retire.