Public Gaming International May/June 2020

38 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • MAY/JUNE 2020 Olli Sarekoski, Chief Executive Officer, Veikkaus, Finland First of all, it is great that you used word "when" instead of "if"! It is vital to stay positive and believe that we will come out of this crisis with solid strategies for building a prosperous and sustainable future for the lottery, though it is hard to predict what will happen and what that future will look like. Some experts say that many things will be totally and permanently changed after the crisis. ere are others who predict that quite rapidly we will try to live our lives as we were living earlier this year. A global pandemic is not something that we have experienced before so we are in uncharted territory. When coronavirus forced us to maintain social distancing with everyone more or less forced to stay home with bars and restaurants closed, there are challenges related to even supply the lottery product. But the much bigger issue may well be the shock to demand. People will likely continue to be cautious about their spending and that has signi cant in uence on consumer shopping and recreational behavior of all kinds, including gaming. I do personally also believe that digital gaming in general will take signi cant steps forward and that will also be the case with lottery games. Staying aligned with operational basics were fundamental pre-corona and that will not change in the post-corona world: the game portfolio needs to be interesting and include competitive features; you need to sustain the trust factor; players need to enjoy a seamless experience across all channels and game categories. Lottery operators also need to have versatile Responsible Gaming solutions, and e ectively communicate them so they have the intended impact on the players. I also believe that good causes might be even more appreciated by our stakeholders, by the good causes that lottery supports, and by the general public, than before coronavirus. Our government and society will be facing some serious economic issues as we work to rebuild society’s basic economic activities. e funds generated by government lotteries will be more needed now and going forward than ever before. It remains to be seen how Lottery will perform amidst economic challenges that may follow the pandemic crisis. You are right, traditionally Lotteries have been described and regarded by some as almost recession-proof. is time Lotteries, which have been able to digitalize their core business, are at least way better positioned compared to operators like casinos which lean on almost purely land-based POS. I am not certain whether zero impact to Lotteries should necessarily be our goal. Ful lling our mission to serve society is the positive outcome we want. For instance, coronavirus and economic disruption may cause some people to think of Lottery as a potential solution to their nancial problems. We may need to escalate our dedication to Responsible Gaming to ensure we do not generate increases in sales and pro ts among those vulnerable players. e overall performance analytics predict that global gambling revenues in 2020 will drop ercely, maybe by as much as $50 billion USD, ending up to match 2015 gures. It is hard to believe that the Lottery world would be totally safe during this global pandemic and its aftermath when the broader games-of-chance industry faces double-digit decreases. I think we can expect the ways of consumption to change. It might be the case that coronavirus impedes the forward march of economic globalization and eventually paves the way for more dependence on local sources instead of international. e virtual world of the internet is certainly more conducive to social distancing. Maybe the new normal of social behavior will be even more focused on digital platforms, iLottery, and iGaming in general. Like I said earlier, we might also face a shock to demand and who knows what happens after that. It is clear that now more than ever, Lotteries need to be more and more agile, more innovative, more willing to change and adapt to a world undergoing profound disruption. Lottery needs to be a fair partner, encouraging open communication between Lottery and retail partners and modernizing so that large portions of those innovations are co-created with our retail partners. e POS business will continue to be truly the most important channel to every single Lottery enterprise – that relationship needs to be nourished on a daily basis! O shore operators annually generate more than 300 million € GGR here in Finland. Within a few years it will reach annually 400 million € GGR. Veikkaus overall market share in 2019 was estimated to be 85%. Outside Veikkaus, in Finland it is the “Wild West” with inadequate regulation. Veikkaus market share of internet gaming is lower – more like 63%. And even lower in casino and sports betting – around 50%. Of course, commercial operators will always push harder to gain more revenues and market share. I think the evidence shows that their real target is to change the system to create a regulatory environment even more favorable to their business model. e focus of government regulators is to regulate whomever they are legally empowered to regulate. In Finland, that is Veikkaus. Clearly coronavirus has in uenced regulatory bodies globally, as more and more restrictions on all forms of gambling have been set, especially on land-based POS because of the need for social distancing. So far, the restrictions that have been made or proposed are framed as being temporary. It is hard to tell how these temporary changes may end up a ecting the regulatory structures on a more permanent basis. Continued at publicgaming.com VISION OF THE POST-CORONAVIRUS WORLD