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// Public Gaming International // March/April 2015
different instant tickets a year can afford to use one or two as
real-world guinea pigs. Of course, the Black Ticket has gone on
to become one of the most successful instant tickets of all time
in countless other lotteries. And because lotteries don’t compete
directly with each other, we happily encouraged its use by any and
all fellow lotteries.
The second example of real-world market test was less success-
ful. Again in New York, we had the notion, culled from count-
less focus groups, that players would enjoy a draw game where,
instead of a big top jackpot prize, multiple winners would each
win $1 million. The game, called Sweet Million, was launched
with a clever ad campaign, but unfortunately, failed to resonate
with players. In fact, sales peaked shortly after launch and slowly
declined thereafter; the game was closed last year. But what we
learned was a lesson in interpreting market research; just because
people say they may like something, their actions can be drasti-
cally different. It reinforces the value of small-scale, real-world
market testing.
The positive experience of Lucky for Life led New York and
New Jersey to launch Cash 4 Life, a similar game which has
also seen good results. Several more states are now joining these
two consortiums, and we now may be seeing the evolution of
the next generation of national games, much like the original
development of Powerball and Mega Millions, which also began
small and grew as players embraced them. These are excellent
examples of how successful lottery national game development
has worked in the past; starting small, adding states, finding the
sweet spot of consumer appeal and growing revenue.
In fact, the win-for-life concept seems to be becoming a real
alternative for consumers who may be suffering from jackpot
fatigue in other games. The concept has even taken hold in the
Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes, which has been promot-
ing and advertising a very lottery-like prize of not just one life-
time, but a second lifetime winner of the player’s choice! Imita-
tion is the sincerest form of flattery.
Meanwhile, lottery directors still need to drive growth and raise
revenue for their good causes. Since relying on a “silver bullet”
new game is problematical at best, focus should return to the to-
tality of the customer experience, especially at retail, where much
work remains to be done. Please excuse the comparison, but can
you compare the typical experience of a person buying a lottery
ticket with the experience of walking into an Apple store? Never-
theless, this is an area we control and can improve every day.
Playing the lottery is fun, and we can reinforce the notion
of fun at many stages of the lottery purchase experience: clean,
sharp ticket displays; relevant and timely point-of-sales materi-
als; attractive player stations; well-stocked vending machines;
simple how-to-play brochures; seasonal store-level promo-
tions, grass-roots event marketing; knowledgeable, well-trained
clerks—all the basic blocking-and-tackling of the lottery busi-
ness have tremendous influence on revenue growth.
Another example of enhancing the player experience is how we
treat our winners. Many lotteries still have “claim” centers; even
the word “claim” implies skepticism and a heavy-handed govern-
ment agency; better to call them customer service centers. Do
your customer service centers make players feel like they are at
the DMV or a police station? Or, are they cheerful, welcoming
places happy to give lucky winners a check on the spot? Think
about removing all the negative government agency symbolism,
heavy-handed posters, framed pictures of agency heads, regula-
tory requirements, even flags. Clean up your signage, avoid clut-
ter, put your friendliest employees out front. Look to the retail
banking industry as a good example of how to make customers
feel welcome, even if employees are behind bullet-proof glass!
All of these seemingly simple tasks can add up to measurable
revenue. Consider for a moment the wide range of performance
of various lotteries. What distinguishes the high-performance lot-
teries from the average? It’s not game design—everyone has basi-
cally the same games. It’s the excellence of day-to-day operational
execution, with a calm persistence on sweating the small stuff, ev-
ery day. It may not be a sexy as blue-sky brainstorming, but these
factors are much more fundamental to the growth and success of
lotteries, by making players feel good about playing the lottery.
Even an issue as controversial as internet game sales is basically
a customer-service issue. As imperative as lotteries being able to
sell on the internet may be, the benefit is in enhanced customer
convenience and service, since the direct revenue potential of in-
ternet sales is modest at best. And even as ridiculously paranoid as
our retail partners are about the internet, ultimately it will serve
to improve the image of lottery play and lottery players, in turn
enhancing their businesses. But first, we need to demonstrate
through actions that the retail experience is our top priority. That
requires superb, reliable technology from our partners, a retail-
friendly regulatory attitude (why is licensing so burdensome in
some jurisdictions?), simple standardized accounting rules, so-
phisticated inventory management and a meaningfully helpful,
well-trained, informed and motivated sales staff.
The lottery industry may be coming out of a harsh winter
right now, but the opportunity exists to get back to basics and
focus on things we can control. The randomness of jackpots
will ebb and flow and inevitably, they will come back to record
levels. We cannot rely on future new game development to solve
our very real day-to-day operating challenges. That will require
consistent application of best practices, learned from our col-
league lotteries and our vendor partners. Good lottery manage-
ment requires good people doing good work. We don’t need to
wait for the next great thing to make our numbers; we can do
that right now with the tools we have.
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