55 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • MARCH/APRIL 2022 What’s Your Story??s continued from page 13 to place a higher value on those principles than on maximizing GGR like the private operators are usually inclined to do. And then there are the synthetic lotteries. R. Dernovšek: Synthetic lotteries, and illegal operators in all gaming categories, exist to stimulate demand and overconsumption. They channel money away from benefiting good causes to benefiting their businesses. It’s an unethical thing to do. Private shareholder interests of illegal operators should not be allowed to violate the well-being of the general public. But it’s not our role to regulate that. That is a role of the policy-makers. Our role is to do our own thing. And do it perfectly. Taking our commitments super seriously, leading the way, be the first in trustworthyness, most advanced in our services and first in caring for players and society. Private operators claim that they are just as capable as state-owned operators to implement RG protocols. R. Dernovšek: ln our free market system, the company is not really required to care about the consumer. They’re required to comply with all laws and regulations. And that is fine as far as it goes. But it does not meet a standard of dedication to RG that can only be achieved by genuinely embracing the spirit of the law, not just the legally enforceable technicalities of the law. As we can see, the U.K. Gambling Commission frequently must penalize companies for violating laws that protect the consumers. I was just reading the most recent research on sport betting and in some countries that have opened sports betting market for competition more than 40% of under 18-year-olds play sports betting every week. That is 40% of underage youths who regularly gamble. No one should be profiting at the expense of society and good causes, as the players suffer and society incurs the cost to take care of addicted players. For most consumer products, the goal is to maximize consumption. The competition typically drives down costs for the consumer and often even increases quality at the same time. But competition in our industry doesn’t mean better but a more addictive product. In a race for the players products are “improved” by introducing highly addictive elements. The goal of gambling and lottery is not to maximize consumption. It is to maximize a balance between players expectations and business results while preventing excessive play, protecting minors and other vulnerable groups as well as preventing fraud and money laundering. I sometimes feel like industry leaders want RG to be an end in itself, and not leveraged as an asset that differentiates lottery from its competition. I think we should be more aggressive about leveraging all assets, certainly including the higher standards we set for RG and CSR, to appeal to our audience of players, optimize the perception of value, and differentiate ourselves from commercial operators. R. Dernovšek: I agree. I hope that our political constituents and general media appreciate the higher standards upheld by their own our lottery operators. Of course, player protection is an end in itself apart from any out competitive agenda. We want to represent something positive for everyone. But there is no reason the standards employed by the WLA members to continually re-set best-practices for responsible gaming, sustainability, security and integrity couldn’t be applied for others to follow. n Houston, have you seen the latest issue of Public Gaming Magazine?
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