10 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023 Competing with Sports Betting and Casinos In years past, Lottery has not really thought of itself as being in head-to-head competition with other games-of-chance categories like casinos and sports betting. And it might be arguable how much the player migrates from one gaming opportunity to another. What is not arguable any more is the actions of operators in these other categories. Commercial casino and sports betting operators recognize the large number of people who play the lottery as a market with dollars to spend (more than $100 billion in the U.S. alone) on games of chance. As they see themselves in competition with lottery, they are now targeting lottery players to convince them to move to casinos, online sports betting and eGames and legislators for their power to shape a regulatory environment that is favorable to commercial casino and sports betting (and unfavorable to lottery). Sports betting and casino operators are lobbying not just for expansion of their sectors. As they have come to see lottery as a threat, they are expending resources and effort to promote anti-lottery legislation or constraints. This new world order represents a threat to lottery revenue growth. It is time we think more about how that affects our own approach to marketing, promotion, and brand positioning of lottery. We need to think more about defending lottery’s market share and keeping lottery players from migrating to other gaming categories. Globally, lottery generates more than $100 billion for good causes that benefit everyone. Unlike commercial operators, our mission is to serve society. It sometimes seems as though legislators who shape public and regulatory policy do not appreciate that. We need to find ways to advocate for the stakeholders of lottery as well as drive new strategies to retain player-ship. We need to explore new ways to fight back against those who are lobbying to constrain the growth of lottery. We need new ways to connect with the public, the general media, and legislators to promote the benefits of lottery, and to make sure they too embrace the mission of lottery as the public service that is owned by the people. Maybe it is just a PR initiative to ensure our message is getting out there. Or maybe it could be something more than that. In any event, this is a team-effort that involves all of us who care about the government lottery industry. It took years of legislative debates for most states to finally end up with their own state lottery. Conversely, look at how quickly sports-betting is getting approved throughout the country. These are the same legislatures who continue to prohibit iLottery. As an industry, we need to find a way to harness the power of our collective voices to convince the general media and general public to be more proactively supportive of lottery. Think about it – sports betting and casino operators compete with each other and yet they saw it as in their interests to collaborate on the shared goal of getting legislation passed that was favorable to their sector and disadvantaged lottery. Team Lottery needs to forge a pathway towards more effective political action or at least advocacy. P A N E L D I S C U S S I O N Following is an executive summary of a one-hour panel discussion held at the World Lottery Summit in Vancouver Rebecca Paul, President & CEO of the Tennessee Lottery, President of the World Lottery Association Fabio Cairoli, Chief Executive Officer, Global Lottery, IGT Pat McHugh, Chief Executive Officer, Scientific Games Doug Pollard, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Pollard Banknote and NeoPollard Rebecca Paul leads the WLA Vancouver Platinum Contributors Panel Discussion
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