10 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • MARCH/APRIL 2023 PGRI INTERVIEWS Paul Jason: What an interesting year this is for everyone as we navigate a transition into a future that has been so changed by the pandemic experience. What would the short list of things that are undergoing most dramatic change and those things that surprisingly are remaining the same? Sarah Taylor: Paul, it is great to be back to “normal” even though our post-COVID “new normal” world is so different from three years ago. Many of you reading this interview will be joining us in-person for PGRI-Miami. Others recently gathered for WLS in Vancouver after a two-year absence. It was good to be back together with my industry peers. One of the most dramatic changes I’ve seen is with consumer behavior. For me, I had used Amazon maybe once prior to COVID. Now packages arrive at my house weekly. I also look at my 85-year-old father who knows how to pull up a restaurant menu on his phone by using a QR code. Consumers of all ages have gone digital. This change goes hand-in-hand with a more contactless and cashless society. In Indiana, for instance, we have one retailer who is transitioning stores to smart-checkouts, without the need for a clerk. Lottery tickets, alcohol, and tobacco are still age-verified by a retail clerk. Many states have self-service lottery vending machines, which allow a contactless purchase of all games. In Indiana, we’ve seen an increase of 68% in the use of our digital play slips since the start of the pandemic and an almost 75% increase in mobile app downloads. As consumer behavior continues to evolve, we must communicate with our players that new consumer-friendly and contactless options are available. Likewise, remote work schedules have seen a very dramatic change post pandemic. Many of our traditional downtown areas have transitioned to fewer in-office workers than they had just three years ago. As an industry, we must take into consideration all of these factors when determining product development and placement, retail expansion and support strategies, and other operational issues as well as big-picture strategic planning. When players weren’t enjoying other forms of entertainment, consumers moved up in price points. $5 and $10 price points are still popular and so they continue to be developed in a similar manner. But REFLECTIONS ON A PERIOD OF MAJOR TRANSITION Sarah M. Taylor Executive Director, Hoosier Lottery (Indiana) PGRI Introduction: Sarah M. Taylor is an accomplished leader with more than twenty-five years of public service experience. Sarah’s career in public service includes twice being elected as the clerk of Marion County, Indiana, the state’s largest county and home of Indianapolis. She served as the Director of Constituent Services under Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard. In October 2013, then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence appointed Sarah as the Executive Director of the Hoosier Lottery. She has since been reappointed by Governor Eric Holcomb. In her 9.5 years as lottery executive director, she has moved up the ranks in lottery industry leadership. She has served as president (two one-year terms), vice president and secretary for the Multi-State Lottery Association, and as region director, secretary, 2nd vice president, and 1st vice president before being elected president of the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries. Sarah and her husband, a retired law enforcement officer, have three children. Continued on page 43
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