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// PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL // November/December 2016
Rebecca Hargrove
(Chief
Executive Officer, Tennessee
Education Lottery Corp. and
Senior Vice President of the
World Lottery Association)
addresses the audience at
PGRI Lottery Expo Miami on
Sept. 13 on the mission and value of the World Lottery As-
sociation to its members. Following is an edited version of
Ms. Hargrove’s address …
It is an honor to be with you today and I bring you greetings
from my friend and colleague Jean-Luc Moner-Banet, the CEO of
Loterie Romande in Switzerland, and the President of the WLA.
The Global Lottery Industry is now measured at $276 billion in
lottery ticket sales. That’s a big number. That is over three times the
global sales of one of the world’s most well-known brands, Coca
Cola. More impressive, though, is the $90+ billion that govern-
ment Lotteries generated for Good Causes. That $90 billion in net
funds to Good Causes actually exceeds the total gross sales revenues
of Coca Cola. That is the amazing and special difference between
the members of the World Lottery Association (WLA) and the rest
of the gaming world: State-sponsored lotteries are dedicated to the
welfare of society instead of private shareholders.
There are 144 members of the World Lottery Association. They’re
divided into five continental associations: the African Association
has 14 members, the Asia-Pacific Lottery Association has 25 mem-
bers, Latin-America has 13 members, North America has 26 mem-
bers, and Europe has 66 members. So, it’s truly a global organiza-
tion, with every corner of the world represented by its members
who are dedicated to serving the mission of generating funds for
Good Causes all around the world. The World Lottery Association
has a diverse set of objectives, all with the common theme of help-
ing government-lotteries set the highest standards of performance
in the industry and optimize service to their stakeholders and Good
Causes in particular. Developing global security standards to pro-
tect the integrity of our games is primary to our mission. Gathering
the information and data based on the experience of our members
also puts the WLA in the position of sharing best practices as they
apply to all areas of the business -like marketing and communica-
tions, Procurement and RFP standards, publishing sales data from
our global membership, and perhaps most importantly … the WLA
constantly works to raise the standards of Responsible Gaming all
around the world. Years of work, and investment of time and re-
sources, have gone into developing this framework that helps WLA
members apply the best practices to protect the consumer and mini-
mize problem gambling. The WLA Responsible Gaming certifi-
cation process has now become the gold standard of the industry.
Many WLA members from all areas of the world have completed
the entire program, meeting and surpassing all standards and re-
quirements to be certified level 4 which is the highest level.
It is only with the active participation of all lotteries all across
the world that we can each and every one of us enjoy the ben-
efits of our shared experience. We appreciate your support and
involvement and encourage everyone to avail themselves of the
resources and support that the WLA has to offer. We will all be
better for it, better operators who meet higher standards of per-
formance on every front, and better servants to the Good Causes
and Society which Government-Lotteries exist to support.
We will all also be better served by standing together in the
face of increasing competition from other sectors of the games-of-
chance industry. Our challenge with them is being contested on
two fronts. First, in the market-place where we compete for the
attention and player-ship of the consumer. It will take all of our
resolve and resourcefulness to win in the dynamic and fluid market-
place of the future. It will be more important than ever that we
work together, sharing the success strategies that will help us to be
the best we can be in each of our own jurisdictions. The WLA is a
community of business operators who are willing to share the les-
sons they have learned, and help others in the process of building
the most effective strategies for sustainable growth. We can learn
from the experience of our colleagues from around the globe who
have already developed best practices. The WLA provides the plat-
Partners in Progress:
WLA and You
Continued on page 30