he highlight of each year's North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL) in-person annual conference, and each bi-annual World Lottery Summit, is when Tennessee Lottery President and CEO, and World Lottery Association president, Rebecca Paul sits down with the leaders of lotteries' commercial partners to discuss the pressing issues facing the industry. The pandemic has interfered with so many in-person events over the last couple of years and so we were very pleased to reconvene this important leadership meeting at PGRI Lottery Expo Nashville. Further to that - We are all looking forward to the triumphant return of the joint WLA/NASPL conference and trade-show in Vancouver, Canada on October 16-22! Fortunately, the wait ended in Nashville in October as Rebecca Paul reprised the lottery industry leader panel. She was joined by: REBECCA PAUL Richard Bateson, Chief Commercial Officer, JUMBO Interactive Byron Boothe, Chief Executive Officer, lntralot, Inc. JayGendron, Chief Operating Officer, Lottery, IGT 18 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL• JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022 Pat McHugh, Group Chief Executive, Scientific Games Lottery Doug Pollard, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Pollard Banknote As Rebecca noted in kicking offthe session, there has been no shortage of opportunities for people to talk over the past almost two years. "One of the things that happened during COV ID was that the number of Teams and Zoom meetings increased dramatically, so we've talked a whole lot more frequently than when we had to wait until we were in person," she said. "We've had a lot of opportunities to discuss many issues. But now, let's ask our panel - what one topic are we not discussing that we really need to be discussing because of its importance to the industry?" Richard Bateson kicked things off. "Creating initiatives that protect our players is how we will keep a sustainable industry going into the future," he RICHARD BATESON said. "It's not just about having popular and relevant games. As the number of channels increases, we need to ensure that we are marketing through the correct channels and protecting players along the way. Managing the player experience through all the changes in the lottery industry will be critical." Pat McHugh's view is that the industry needs to concentrate on advocacy. "Our industry, although highly successful, continues to face headwinds that will PAT McHUGH challenge our ability to move forward and keep beneficiary funding growing. In other parts of the world, we've seen lottery lumped in with other forms of gaming and we end up being reactive to the challenges. Lottery is different than casino, and we must make sure that is understood by the stakeholders who influence the future of lottery. I think we need to be very deliberative as leaders of this industry, and proactively get our stakeholders to talk about why we exist. We fund college scholarships, programs for senior citizens, funding for municipalities. It is vital that we get these important messages out there. We need to proactively shape the message so our constituents appreciate the difference between lottery and commercial gambling." Byron Boothe thinks we need to focus on our customers. "A critical issue is the future of customer acquisition," he said. "Today, BYRON BOOTHE
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