Public Gaming International Gaming July/August 2021

8 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • JULY/AUGUST 2021 From the Publisher T he theme of our upcoming in-person conference in Nashville, as well as this issue of the magazine, is that the lottery industry is entering a golden era. None of us has a crystal ball and so it may be a little impetuous to make such a prediction. But the stars are aligning in some very interesting ways for the gaming industry and for lottery in particular. For one thing, people may not be travelling to casinos or social venues as much as before, but everyone can go into their local convenience store and play the lottery. For another, lottery is expanding its land-based retail footprint to include more multi-state national chain stores, and adding more ways to play including in-lane and self-serve purchase options that are super-streamlined for the modern consumer. It may be hard to predict just how the retail and online industries will re-engineer and re-position for the post- COVID19 world, but we can observe the competition for market-share intensifying which means that having the products the consumer wants is more important than ever. And since the consumer wants to play the lottery, retailers need to not only have lottery in their stores but also need to streamline the purchasing experience. I think we can go a step further and say that the pandemic experience of the last 18 months has only reinforced the fact that consumers love lottery. While we envision a golden era for lottery, it won’t happen without studying the way business, commerce, consumer behaviour, retailing, and everything else has been profoundly affected by the pandemic; and planning for a world transformed by the events of the last 18 months. The presentations and Roundtable discussions of PGRI’s last two eConferences are a good place to start. The panelists and moderators have synopsized (and Jim Acton edited) those sessions into articles that tell an important story. Last year, for instance, a common theme was that the pandemic was accelerating the rate that already-existing trends were achieving mass-market adoption. This year, industry leaders are talking about the transformational impact of the direct and residual effects of the pandemic, impacts that go far beyond the hastening of existing trends. For more insights into how post-pandemic trends are reshaping consumer behaviour and how that affects the lottery industry, check out the article “Lessons from the year that changed the world” on page 30. The whole question of states’ rights to determine regulatory policy in the world of gambling and lottery appears to have been settled once and for all. Over the past decade, there has been confusion about whether the Wire Act of 1961 applies only to sports betting or to all forms of gambling and lottery. Now, the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled, and the U.S. Department of Justice has decided not to contest the ruling, that the 1961 Wire Act does not apply to non-sports betting or wagering activity over the Internet. Before this ruling, states were afraid of the possibility that they would be sued by the U.S. DoJ if they implemented online lottery. Now there is clarity, now they know they have jurisdictional authority over regulatory policy as it applies to gambling and lottery, including online gambling and lottery. With that, many U.S. states are moving ahead post haste with iLottery action-plans. And the states that have implemented iLottery programs have been achieving outstanding success on all fronts, most spectacularly on the land-based retail channel. As has been proven again and again all over the world, iLottery brings in new consumer groups who are incented to play lottery at retail as well as online. Everyone wins – retailers, lottery, and players. And as Gregg Edgar’s “Digital Engagement” Roundtable panelists attest, digital lottery is not just about online sales. It’s about connecting with the consumer on all media and channels to forge the interactive relationship key to sustainable growth in a world dominated by omni- channel operators like Amazon. I can’t tell you how excited we are at the prospect of to seeing you again at PGRI Lottery Expo Nashville! The theme of this year’s Lottery Expo: Welcome to the post-pandemic Golden Era of Lottery: Moving away from Multi-channel, Omni-channel and "channels" altogether. Enter the Metaverse of "New Retail" where the focus is on the consumer experience, presence is ubiquitous, and content matters more than ever. We want to thank … • Rebecca Paul Hargrove and the Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation for co-hosting Lottery Expo Nashville. One highlight of the conference will be when Rebecca again leads her famous CEO/Industry Leaders Roundtable Discussion. • And Gretchen Corbin, CEO of the Georgia Lottery and president of NASPL, for being the keynote speaker. • Lottery directors, their team members, and their commercial technology partners who have so effectively led this industry through the most disrupted period in what seems like forever. • Industry leaders who are sponsoring Lottery Expo Nashville. • Everyone who will make the WILL (Women In Lottery Leadership) session the tremendous success that it always is. And a big thanks to all of you for your friendship! For complete information and conference updates, please visit us at PublicGaming. com. See you in Nashville in October! Paul Jason, Publisher Public Gaming International Magazine