Public Gaming International May/June 2020

36 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • MAY/JUNE 2020 Philippe Vlaemminck, Managing Partner, Pharumlegal, Legal Counsel to Lotteries LOTTERIES LEADERSHIP: COOPERATING TO REBUILD OUR SOCIETIES In a speech at Smart-Tech New York I referred to the Bob Dylan refrain: “If your time to you is worth savin’, en you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone. For the times they are a-changin’”. I followed up in Lisboa at the EL Industry Days bi-annual event invoking John Lennon’s “imagine” to put us in the future frame-of-mind. ese words are today even more true and important. Following COVID-19 , the world has no other choice than to be one against the invisible enemy of a world pandemic. Researchers around the planet are enhancing e orts to nd a medical solution that can save the world. ey need support. At the same time people face huge problems as educational systems are disrupted, poverty is growing, cultural & sport organizer are ghting to survive… and the economy is undergoing unseen di culties. Governments and international institutions are increasing e orts to avoid the worst, … but there is so much more to do. at is where Lotteries can come into the picture. Times are indeed changing fundamentally, but Lotteries can more than ever bring hope for people & solidarity amongst them, and peace for all … e Lottery community is one world driven by common values, embedded in local life, but with great care for the consumers, with their entertaining products and based upon the principle of integrity, expressing the solidarity of humans. Lotteries provide large amounts of money for R&D, education, ght against poverty, support for sport & culture and development aid. All areas that are seriously a ected by this sanitary crisis. So Lotteries can become even more essential for our future societies. ey can and need to take up this role and position themselves as valuable partners of governments and civil society. It is a matter of leadership. Bring the message, share the message, of hope and solidarity for a better and sustainable future, to the bene t of all our societies. To do so we need urgently to rebuild our activities as they were seriously a ected, in a less vulnerable way enhancing the dialogue with the authorities and regulators advocating for “regulatory openness for innovation and change and digital transformation” by Lotteries. ere is indeed no time to lose given the urgent needs of our societies. Regulators and lawmakers may well argue that in an area as sensitive as lotteries, betting & gambling, we need to act with care in order to avoid that consumers get hurt by addictive games. But today we have no choice than to embrace innovation. More than others, Lotteries are the best placed , given the strict state control they are subject to, the standards and values they promote jointly and life up to, to be recognized as the essential laboratories for innovation in the lottery, betting & gambling area. Already in 1999 the Court of Justice did explicitly recognize this in the Finnish Läärä case : “Limited authorisation of such games on an exclusive basis, which has the advantage of con ning the desire to gamble and the exploitation of gambling within controlled channels, of preventing the risk of fraud or crime in the context of such exploitation, and of using the resulting pro ts for public interest purposes, likewise falls within the ambit of those ( public interest) objectives.” is was explicitly repeated in 2009 in the Santa Casa da Misericordia de Lisboa: “In that connection, it must be acknowledged that the grant of exclusive rights to operate games of chance via the internet to a single operator, such as Santa Casa, which is subject to strict control by the public authorities, may, in circumstances such as those in the main proceedings, con ne the operation of gambling within controlled channels and be regarded as appropriate for the purpose of protecting consumers against fraud on the part of operators.” ese are the common causes to be achieved by the broad leadership of the world lottery community experts. Lottery has performed better than other sectors in an economic recession. How severely will the economic repercussions of coronavirus impact Lottery? e impact may be di erent from Lottery to Lottery depending whether lockdown will have impacted all or some activities due to closing of POS, absence of sport ( and betting) and the di culties in organizing draws…However, this time Lotteries have in general been severely impacted by the pandemic People are social animals and need to reestablish contact with each other to feel better. e psychological impact of the lockdown, as experts tell us, is probably bigger than we may think. Social contacts and recreational activities may help to recover. Lotteries need to help to bring social and community life back alive , bring more interactive games and o er new games ( e-sports & virtual betting) along the existing games. More games with low stakes and smaller winnings could make people again enjoying life and provide them hope. Digital transformation will be easier to implement as people gets more used to new technologies to communicate, to act … Travelling will not come back very fast, at least not when it will require mass commuting through airports , planes and cruise ships, but family commuting will come very fast, as well as more climate friendly ways of transport and holidays. People will need to dream again and travelling will bring back those dreams , maybe in di erent formats. e touristic sector will need to re-invent its o er. Casino have to provide even more di erent forms of entertainment and nearer by. Lotteries need to continue to support the retail sector. It is more than just POS, it is for many persons the social neighborhood. At the same time we have to lessen the costs and increase the availability of new games and consider new, even digital, tasks. Shapers of public policy will have a lot on their plate over the coming months. Even so, what can we do to push harder than ever to get approval to invest in new games categories, and new technologies like in-lane sales and cashless transactions? Continued at publicgaming.com VISION OF THE POST-CORONAVIRUS WORLD