30 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022 A Brief History of Lottery To understand the most recent changes and their impact on the industry, we have to first look at how Lottery began and how it evolved. Much has been made about the history of the Lottery and ancient gambling practices. The Chinese lay claim to the earliest recorded keno slips and the Romans were also fond of a flutter. Emperor Augustus was even believed to have used money from the sale of lottery tickets to fund repairs in Rome and the oldest lottery in operation today, the Dutch lottery, was originally started as a means to raise money for the poor ... Showing that since its onset, Lottery funding has been used for local communities and projects. It wasn’t until the 15th Century that lotteries began giving money as prizes, the first most notably being in Belgium, which is bestowed with the honour of inventing the modern lottery some 600 years ago. Interestingly, the US was an early adopter of lotteries. Many of its founding fathers and historical institutions were involved with or funded by organised lotteries. The country also currently boasts the world record jackpot offering (over $1.5bn in January 2016). Lotteries continued to develop their retail products until the late 1990s when the world suddenly found itself at the dawn of a new digital age. Gambling would look at this new channel with interest. However, not all countries would permit it, taking issue with a lack of regulation online and certainly, customer behaviour at the time indicated that retail was the more popular vertical. UK national statistics showed that even 10 years later (2009-10) only 4% of adults had bet online but by the following year that figure jumped significantly to 11.2%. The introduction of digital and its influence in the entertainment industry was starting to have an effect on player and consumer behaviour. And the UK was not the only country experiencing this phenomenon. The Technological Era and its Impact Since the turn of the millennium, developments in digital technology have been with the sole purpose of putting the end-user at the centre of its functionality. What are customers after? What are they trying to do? How can technology make it easier? This has led to handheld devices, accessible media and cross channel selling, all in an attempt to facilitate our day-to-day lives. However, at the start of the 2000s, it was mainly younger people and top San Francisco execs adopting the technology. Advancements were widely acknowledged but the technology was clunky and the products awkward; Netflix was a DVD mail service, phones could only store 10 messages, even in the early days of Facebook you needed a university email to sign up. Technology was very much targeted at the younger generation and the stage of life at which they were at, thus driving a slower uptake by older generations and other industry sectors. How 2020-21 Changed Lotteries Forever www.bedegaming.com Alistair Boston-Smith Alistair Boston-Smith, Chief Strategy Officer at Bede Gaming, takes a look at how technological changes have been the catalyst for transforming consumer behaviour, what these new preferences mean for lotteries and how COVID changed everything.
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