Public Gaming International May/June 2020

43 43 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • MAY/JUNE 2020 Harold Mays, Acting Director, Illinois Lottery In general, I think people will be more guarded and aware of their personal safety and health. is will a ect how people behave and interact, both as a consumer and a provider of services and products. Businesses will have to adjust their business model accordingly. e COVID-19 crisis has forced us all to take a closer look at how we work to service our internal and external customers. e lessons learned will help guide us to a better and more e cient way of doing business. Although Lottery has shown some resilience during tough economic times, we are in an uncharted territory. e jury is still out on what the overall impact on the industry will be. As we have already seen, as restrictions on large gatherings and a focus on social distancing continue, people will seek out forms of entertainment and engagement they haven’t tried before. Some of those options will survive into the post- COVID-19 world. Others will fade and people will settle back into what they know to the extent they can. Lotteries that can adjust to their players’ changing preferences will be better positioned to thrive in post- COVID-19 world. Lottery retail partners are the stars in this relationship. Our role is to support them through this crisis and provide them what they need to help get through it. I think that strengthens the bond that’s there already and helps chart a path to the future when the crisis subsides. e justi cation for implementing new technologies for many lotteries has always been based in practicality. How do we stay competitive in an ever-changing gaming landscape? How do we engage with our players where and how they want to engage with us, at home, at the store, out and about? How do we responsibly grow our player base to increase revenues to the good causes we provide funding for? e COVID crisis is yet another practical reason for lotteries to leverage all the available tools to stay viable and operate today. ■ Rollo Redburn, Executive Director, Lottery I don’t think we really know how the world will change and what will be di erent. I listen to various radio personalities and politicians until I’ve had my ll for the day, and I can tell you that I just pray that the world does not become what some of them envision. I think those of us who think a little more clearly will take a rational approach on future operations. I think we will look at what’s going on now and use our experiences in this situation to help identify processes that can work di erently (read - “better”) than they did before. Some processes may not be as important as we thought earlier; the ROI on some of those may not really be worth it, so maybe we plan functions, events, etc. and spend a little di erently than before. Some things will be eliminated; some will be smartly reduced and some will be enhanced. • We may nd that not all the positions we had before were all that important to the success we all want for our bene ciaries. • We may nd that some areas need more attention, more sta and more resources. • We will likely nd that there are things we did before in certain ways that work better under a di erent process. Frequent visits may be reduced and replaced with more of a “call when you need us” model or something where we can better monitor when a physical call is needed. I expect that a lot of people will be spending time and resources trying to recover from the nancial hits they’ve taken during this crisis. at will likely impact the number of players, amount players can or will spend, etc. Really a lot to consider. It may not result in a lot of change, but I think that it will. We still exist to provide funding for our bene ciaries. First thing to consider is whether bene ciary operations have changed and does that impact anything that we do? I think that in most cases, the lotteries do NOT make decisions about where resources/pro ts go; we are simply tasked with raising as much as we can, given the operating environment we have. But, bene ciary changes should be considered. What can lotteries do? • Identify supply chain weaknesses and how to strengthen them. • Reviewing how we provide services will take place. • Make better use of technology, work from home scenarios, “touchless” and continued “social distancing-like” relationships, etc. • Eliminate or restructure identi ed processes. • Approval for online/mobile sales and processes is essential. e Oklahoma Lottery is doing better than anticipated at this point, but certainly not performing as desired. If that continues and is typical around the country, lotteries should come out of this okay, but with a strong need to reacquaint ourselves with our retailers, players, vendors and bene ciaries. In some cases, there may actually be increased pressure on certain lotteries to “ramp it up” and increase sales to a greater level, perhaps opening new sales avenues (more availability of mobile and/or internet sales). I know there is criticism from the “anti- lottery; anti-gambling; anti-government; anti-anything I don’t support or understand” crowd about continuing to o er lottery tickets in the “social distancing” world. ose are mostly just a typical media response/criticism designed to create con ict or in ame sensibilities; or many are just irrational concerns in my opinion. Citizens that are not prohibited from getting out still have to get out, buy gas, buy groceries and other needed supplies. Lottery products are o ered in those establishments and lottery products add no greater risk to players because of their availability than does a pack of cigarettes, loaf of packaged bread, or a co ee to go; particularly if sold from a vending machine (obviously, not all lottery products are sold from vending machines). Plus, I suspect that being able to continue to play lottery, for whatever reason the player enjoys it, gives them one more way to think about something else for a while. Hopefully, politicians don’t en masse buy into such thinking and select lottery as something to further restrict in the future. Continued at publicgaming.com LOTTERY INDUSTRY LEADERS SHARE THE VISION