Public Gaming November/December 2020

10 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 PGRI ROUNDTABLES W hen Virginia Lottery Executive Director Kevin Hall’s year started, he had the typical “to do” items on his list: - Continue to provide a strong product line-up for players - Support retailers with cutting-edge technology and sales tools - Grow returns for Virginia’s Department of Education 2020 would prove to be the turning point for the Virginia Lottery. e House and Senate passed legislation allowing for iLottery in February and the Governor signed the bill three weeks later. After an all-out sprint, the iLottery site launched on July 1. All this in the middle of a pandemic with lottery employees working from home. A three-year lottery veteran, Kevin recounted his 2020 iLottery experiences as part of the iLottery panel at the PGRI Lottery Expo. He was in good company, as some of the industry leaders on iLottery joined him to provide an in-the-trenches overview of the path to iLottery and what can be expected post-launch. e industry expectation is that with lotteries still dealing with COVID19-related sales issues, more states will explore iLottery platforms as pathways to increase sales. As an update, there are now eight lotteries featuring iLottery platforms: - Illinois (Launched 2012) - Georgia (2012) - Michigan (2014) - Kentucky (legalized 2013, launched 2016) - New Hampshire (2018) - Pennsylvania (2018) - Rhode Island (legalized 2019, launched 2020) - Virginia (2020) For lotteries considering going the iLottery route, or which are helping their state’s government explore the possibilities, the insights from the experts on this panel of iLottery veterans are most enlightening. ey each shared their experiences and tips for those wanting to learn more about iLottery, putting together plans to present to What are the key drivers for success in the world of online lottery? The path towards adoption of online lottery sales has been slow-going since the Illinois and Georgia lotteries launched in 2012. Thankfully, it appears that we may be nearing the proverbial tipping point. With the expansion of all games-of-chance categories over the last ten years, and now with the explosion of sports-betting into the U.S. market, maybe it is time for state governing authorities to allow their own state lotteries to make the products available online. The Georgia Lottery has been building out its iLottery program for the last eight years with CEO Gretchen Corbin leading the way for the last three years. New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Virginia are some more recent entries into the iLottery space. iLottery will hopefully be implemented by more and more U.S. lotteries over the coming months. PGRI LOTTERY EXPO & POST-COVID19 LOTTERY: THE MOVIE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE ILOTTERY ROUNDTABLE ILOTTERY ROUNDTABLE LEADER: Gretchen Corbin, President and Chief Executive Officer, Georgia Lottery Cor- poration PANELISTS: Richard Bateson, Chief Commercial Officer, JUMBO Interactive Kevin Hall, Executive Director, Virginia Lottery Doug Pollard, Co-Chief Executive Of- ficer, Pollard Banknote and Co-CEO of NeoPollard Interactive Stephanie Weyant, Deputy Executive Director, Marketing & Product Develop- ment, Pennsylvania Lottery Andrea Williams, Senior Marketing Manager - PlayLottery, IGT