Public Gaming November/December 2020

8 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 From the Publisher One of the big themes to emerge from the terrible ravages of pandemic is that trends are accelerating. Consumer are adopting new behaviours (like online ordering, self- service vending, enjoying local recreational gaming options instead of travelling to resort gaming destinations, playing the lottery online) much more quickly. Technologies like video-conferencing are skipping the whole “early-adopter” stage and moving right into mass-market acceptance. With positive expectations for a fast deployment of vaccines, maybe we can hope for a return to some semblance of “normalcy” in six or seven months – just in time for the EL Congress in the ancient city of Šibenik Croatia on the Adriatic coast the end of May. Certainly we will be more than ready to convene at the annual NASPL big trade-show and conference event the end of September in Kansas City. PGRI’s next in-person event, PGRI Lottery Expo will be held in Nashville on October 26 to 28. e question still looming over us, though, is what the “new normal” will look like. I think we can expect, for instance, that video-conferencing will continue to be a big part of our lives. It has been so vital to our ability to function and still manage to get the job done in this period of extreme social distancing. But once the social distancing constraint is relaxed or lifted entirely, does that mean we will go back to hopping on airplanes to engage in-person meetings with the frequency of pre-COVID days? I think everyone agrees that in-person interaction is an important component to the preservation of a corporate culture and social fabric that is healthy and comports with the fundamental human need to bond and get to know each other. But video-meetings have proven to be quite e ective as the communication hub that enables collaboration, teamwork, and the functioning of even large-scale enterprises. On another front, I asked a few people about the ongoing utility of print versus digital media (and print magazines like this one) and was pleasantly surprised to learn that people do still love to receive the print magazine. What about iLottery – how has the evolution of online gaming been impacted by the chilling e ect of the pandemic on shopping and going to casinos and in-person recreational venues? We know that iLottery sales sky-rocketed during the shut-down period. I would think we can expect that at least some of those players who were new to iLottery as a result of the pandemic will continue to play online. But how many? And what can we do to retain the player-ship of these iLottery newcomers? Likewise Instant Scratch-o s. Sales increased in this category as well. We do not have data to explain exactly why Scratch- o sales went up so much. But some are surmising that the lack of other gaming and entertainment options (not just the shut-down of casinos but also movie theatres, restaurants and recreation where people gather together) caused people to turn to the games available everywhere in their local C-stores. I know you will nd the executive summaries of the Roundtable discussions held as a part of Post-COVID19 Lottery: the Movie most useful. You can also see the video-recording of the entire conference (or any portion that you want to select) on PGRItalks.com. We have two big iLottery features in this issue. First, there is the executive summary of the fabulous iLottery Roundtable led by Gretchen Corbin and featuring ve other iLottery industry leaders. en there is the feature interview with Sharon Anderson of Australia’s e Lott for her assessment of the future of iLottery in the post-COVID world, and for insight into e Lott’s strategies for optimizing the future of digital platforms going forward. e executive summary of the Instants Roundtable discussion was led by Beth Bresnahan who was joined by four other industry leaders with special insight into the underlying dynamics of what drives Instant Scratch-o sales. Gary Grief led the Digitization of the in-store shopping and playing experience Roundtable. e exec summary re ects the con dence that industry leaders have in the momentum going forward to invest in the requisite technologies that will drive retail modernization. And then there is the over-arching theme of how we begin to analyze the e ects of the major disruptions of the past nine months, and what do we do about it. May Scheve and panel of experts applied the “SWOT” methodology to the process and led a most provocative discussion that is also summarized here as well as available for viewing on PGRItalks.com. I want to thank Scienti c Games, IGT, and INTRALOT for their exceptional editorial contributions to this issue. And thank you to Jim Acton for editing the executive summaries of the Roundtable discussions. e success of “Post-COVID19 Lottery: the Movie” has inspired us to develop a series of six 3-hour virtual seminars that we have dubbed PGRI Live! We hope you join us from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST): 1. January 20: iLottery 2. February 17: Retail Modernization 3. March 17: Regulatory Modernization and the Politics of Gaming Follow PublicGaming.com (PGRI home-page and news website) for virtual conference and webinar updates, and to track the production process as we work together to create a new kind of experience, digitally transformed to not just enable but enrich and enhance the joy of working and striving together. Paul Jason, Publisher Public Gaming International Magazine “I would think we can expect that at least some of those players who were new to iLottery as a result of the pandemic will continue to play online. But how many? And what can we do to retain the player-ship of these iLottery newcomers?”