Public Gaming International May/June 2020

40 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • MAY/JUNE 2020 LOTTERY INDUSTRY LEADERS SHARE THE VISION Jeff Anderson, Executive Director, Idaho Lottery COVID-19 THOUGHTS FROM FLY-OVER COUNTRY I’m sure all of our teams have thought a lot about what things look like when we as a people fully emerge from the measures used to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s interesting to see the di erences in perspective based on what individual people have experienced. ose who are fortunate enough (or not, I suppose, as the case may be) to telework while obeying shelter-in-place orders had, I’m told, an experience like never before. It feels “safe”. Or not. Social distancing was generally achieved, groups of ten or less not so much, when shopping for food with 205 of your neighbors. Of course, a spouse or two were heard saying “honey, I married you for better or for worse but not for lunch, please go back to the o ce”. I suspect these folks are invigorated by seeing their friends and colleagues in person again. ose who were out each day on less crowded streets serving the public at grocery stores and C-stores and home improvement stores, delivering goods (plenty of liquor but not enough toilet paper) to warehouses or retail stores, stocking shelves, patrolling the streets, putting out res, saving lives, caring for the sick, and everyone else who had to venture out to do their jobs had a di erent experience. is was me. For some it seemed “normal”. For others, weird. For some, scary. For me, just weird. ose who were quarantined for a time or couldn’t telework but lost lots of human interaction on a daily basis had a rst-time experience. e Pastor. e candidate. e waiter. e bartender. e ight attendant. Continued at publicgaming.com Marcus Glasper, Director, Washington Lottery If there is one positive from our current situation, it is that more of the general public understands how important lotteries are to state revenues. It is so encouraging to hear di erent interest groups throughout the country describe lottery games as important products for lottery retailers, and many of those retailers have been deemed essential businesses. We have heard concerns from some members of the public and the media questioning if lotteries are really essential businesses, and they can’t understand why we’re still operating. We’ve tried to communicate that while lottery is considered entertainment by some, it also helps fund essential services in the community. We need to continue to communicate that message. I was speculating with some friends that prohibiting social interaction with their social groups would make young people bored. But I was shocked when most told me that their children were adapting just ne and were continuing to interact with their friends as usual, through online channels. is generation has di erent needs in terms of socializing. We have had to waive quite a few of our current policies to allow operations to continue uninterrupted. When you’re working with small businesses and nancial issues, particularly in times of crisis, you need to help them and also look for opportunities. ey have been through a lot and they need our help in re-building. And this has an impact on the lottery industry in that we will need to ensure that our products are available via multiple distributions channels, including online. ose of us who grew up with perhaps more social contact, particularly at retail, think of a store as the place to purchase lottery products. Younger people interact online and they are much more comfortable with the online channel. We know from past experience that in times of crisis, the state legislature is more receptive to the contributions that lottery makes if allowed to pursue new strategies to generate revenue. e state budget will be signi cantly impacted for the next year or more which may cause the legislature to look more favorably on new lottery initiatives. If we show policymakers that we can provide added value during this di cult time, perhaps there is an opportunity for online sales. As long as there are lotteries, retailers will be critical drivers of sales. Lotteries have to continue to support their retailer networks, particularly as we begin to emerge from the economic damage of the past few months. As an industry, we are always looking for ways to reinforce and build on the symbiotic relationship we have with retailers. Is there anything about this crisis or emerging from this crisis that we use to our advantage to move our retailer relationships forward? As I mentioned, we have been extremely exible with our retailers during the lockdown. And we need to continue to listen to their concerns as we go forward. ey have been on the frontline of this pandemic and there will certainly be fallout from that stress. Maybe this is a time for us to hold retailer panels, at least virtually, to hear their concerns rsthand. Of course, in time, Washington’s Lottery employees will be back in the eld visiting retailers face-to-face (or perhaps mask-to- mask). We will return to our important tasks of restocking tickets, distributing POS material and performing all the eld operational tasks. And we will begin to return to the lottery’s o ces. Most of our customer service centers are behind glass but that’s not so for our lottery kiosks. I think naturally there will be some fears and we will need to think about how we support people during the transition. Our job as leaders will be to kind of normalize and allow people to re-adjust. at will be challenging. ose challenges will perhaps not be as drastic as moving an entire workforce to at-home status. Many of the lottery’s employees were working at home for the rst time in their careers. At rst, we were all unsure how this would work but now we see, OK, we made this happen. Some of these positions we never considered for telework before and everyone found a way to make it work. In every crisis there’s opportunity. ■