10 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • JULY/AUGUST 2022 Continued on page 24 With more than 30 U.S. states offering gambling of some type – casinos, sports betting, mobile gaming, the lottery industry today faces competition unlike any other time in its history. How should lottery executives respond to the ongoing expansion of gambling options? Do we now think of ourselves as being in head-to-head competition with these other games-of-chance options – with players spreading a similar spend across more and more gaming categories? Or are multiple gaming options bringing new players into the marketplace and creating new potential lottery customers? How do we defend against the threats and optimize the opportunities represented by this new competitive landscape? These type of issues and questions were tackled by experts with front-row seats to the changing nature of the gaming market-place, and how it is impacting lottery. Moderating the panel titled “Competition Within the Games-Of-Chance Industry” was Drew Svitko, Executive Director, Pennsylvania Lottery. Drew was joined by: Derek Levesque, Director of Product Management & Business Development, IGT Lynne Roiter, Secretary General of the World Lottery Association, formerly President and Chief Executive Officer, Loto-Québec Matt Strawn, Chief Executive Officer, Iowa Lottery Lorne Weil, Executive Chairman, Inspired Entertainment Drew kicked off the session by recounting what has taken place in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania over the past two decades. The Pennsylvania Lottery has been dealing with the issue of increasing competition since 2004 when casinos were legalized. The first retail sportsbook opened in November 2018 and online sports betting launched in May 2019. Sportsbooks in the state recorded their first month of $100 million in handle in August 2019. “This is an interesting topic,” said Drew. “We take competition seriously at the Pennsylvania Lottery. We operate in a competitive gaming environment, with 164 land-based casinos, and more on the way. Pennsylvania has more slot machines in those casinos than there are in Atlantic City. Pennsylvania has legalized sports gaming which the lottery does not run. The casinos also sell online, so we have iGaming offered throughout the Commonwealth. And we also have an estimated 60,000 illegal skill machines in the marketplace. So it’s a crowded gaming market to say the least. Not to mention, all of the other natural competition that we have for those discretionary entertainment dollars.” “So I’ll ask the panelists a question I wrestle with every day, ‘How much do we have to worry about losing lottery customers?’ Player acquisition is one thing but what about attrition? How much do we have to actually worry about losing players to the other gaming categories? Industry veteran and Inspired Entertainment CEO Lorne Weil took the first shot. Lorne has been involved with all forms of gambling from horse racing to traditional lottery to virtual sports COMPETITION WITHIN THE GAMES-OF-CHANCE INDUSTRY P A N E L D I S C U S S I O N Executive Summary from PGRI Smart-Tech 2022 Miami Conference
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