PGRI March/April 2022 Public Gaming Magazine

57 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • MARCH/APRIL 2022 Digital Lottery Growth is Skyrocketing continued from page 26 to act in a responsible manner as we work to attract players and promote purchases?” Andrew Crowe said that at Sightline, we have years of experience with how the public views the use of credit cards. Applying insights from that experience to the lottery industry, Andrew spends much time working to show how cashless transaction technologies contribute to responsible play. “The use of credit cards at lottery vending machines is a great illustration of how we can use data for all facets of lottery business,” he said. “At first blush, many of our stakeholders think that allowing credit cards is irresponsible and perhaps shouldn’t even be allowed. But the use of credit cards transforms the transaction from an anonymous cash purchase, in which nothing is known about the player, into a record and data-point that can help the player be more aware and manage play more responsibly. Decisions on both the lottery and player sides will be more informed from that data. “Once you start to have digital activity, the consumer now has better visibility into how much they are spending and are in a better position to self-regulate. Another benefit that is often overlooked is that the banks are also now involved in monitoring. They know the player’s debt- to-income ratio, their credit score, income levels, normal behaviors, etc. and they know this is a gambling transaction. The bank is making a decision about the risk tolerance of this player at a transactional level. For lotteries, we’re not looking to squeeze the extra nickel out of the player. It’s about growing responsibly, empowering the consumer behave responsibly and working with you to make decisions that comport well with all other aspects of players’ lives.” For Richard Bateson, the question is “How far do you want to take your responsible gaming policies? We have the data on our players’ patterns. So you can either commercialize it, do something with it to protect players or, even better, both. We know what works to promote purchases and we also know our at-risk players. How do we help this small population? It’s actually easier with digital than at retail. We owe it to our players and communities to offer safeguards that will protect them.” Merv Huber said responsible gaming is a part of Scientific Games’ predictive analytics program. “We score every player on the percent likelihood that the player will self-exclude X months into the future,” he said. “It’s a powerful tool but how do you put it into use? Do you throttle back your marketing? Test and measure? You could send your responsible gaming message to a group you’ve identified as likely to self-exclude a few months in the future. Send the message to half those players and hold a control group back. And then after three months, score them again. What did the predictive analytics say about the players who got the message versus those who didn’t? Did you improve that score? What did self-exclusion look like for those pools of players who did or did not get a responsible gaming message? It’s important to use the same tests and measure for responsible gaming that we use for all other marketing activity.” Drew Svitko wrapped up with a few thoughts on data. “Obviously data is important to all of us and our businesses, and in some cases it’s because we can use it to do the right things and in other cases drive our businesses forward,” he said. “Data is the present and the future of our business. For those not selling online currently but see it in their future, please reach out to the lotteries which are able to offer online sales. We have our own data that could help inform your decisions. Even if online sales are not in your future, the data collected from other states might help your decisions, both with your current digital program and your traditional lottery sales.” n realize that you must think and act differently,” he said. “For us, with no iLottery on the horizon, there are incremental things we can do to help our retailers and add players.” Rebecca added to this idea of re-imagining the retail experience to include any type of digital. “There is no need for us to use the same trade styles, to limit ourselves in reaching our players,” she said. “We know our customers aren’t limiting themselves as the multiple retailers with which they interact are always selling them something and reaching them through their smartphones and other means. So let’s make sure we act like any other retail brands and send our customers offers on their phones and move them back and forth between in-person retail and digital.” Darrell reiterated the importance of optimizing loyalty programs and VIP Clubs, particularly for lotteries which cannot sell products online. “Let’s make sure we make our sign-up as simple as those in other industries,” he said. “As you look at what other industries, you see simple processes for joining their digital worlds, and certainly many lotteries have similar processes. But if you use a Facebook sign-on or just ask for email information and then start collecting information, you have simplified the process and you’ll see a greater conversion rate for players. In the end, it’s all about convenience. Shannon emphasized that digital isn’t only about online sales and VIP Clubs. “There are a number of lotteries that have embraced the opportunities with social media and are creating some great content and have an entire personality around their brands,” she said. “Other are creating paid content that doesn’t really look like paid content which is important because it still has authenticity. And that is critical. We want to engage our customers but not turn them off with overtly ‘sales-y’ content. Provide them with authentic content and you’ll keep them coming back.” And as Matt said to conclude the panel, “For all us, even those who can’t sell online, there are opportunities to use digital to promote our businesses and reach players. We all need to figure out how we can best engage players in a mobile/digital world and demonstrate we’re relevant to their lives. Let’s become more efficient and more successful, always keeping in mind that the better we do, the better the good causes we support will do.” n

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