8 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • MAY/JUNE 2024 From the Publisher So, tell me what you really think … Legislators were elected to represent the interests of the people, not the sports betting and casinos who contribute to their campaigns. Selling their legislative votes to the highest bidder is not what they were elected to do. Which brings us to observe an interesting confluence of events. First, it has gotten to the point where sports betting operators no longer need to even pretend to respect the normal protocols and operations of the state governments tasked with regulating their activities. See page 50 for the short story of how none of the operators even showed up for a meeting called by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC). This roundtable was called for the purpose of talking about “how, when and why they set betting limits on some patrons”. The sports betting operators literally refused to attend. Why should they bother when they (i.e. sports betting operators) know that legislators will protect their interests no matter how flagrantly they disrespect the state agencies responsible for regulating sports betting? Accordingly, and as a direct result of the rampant corruption during the process of legalizing casino gambling, Louisiana did the sensible thing of making it illegal for state legislators to accept campaign contributions from gambling interests. But that was 30 years ago. Now, at the behest of an attorney for Penn Entertainment (a major gambling company with five riverboat casinos in Louisiana), a bill was just approved by the state senate finance committee to reverse that prohibition and allow campaign donations from commercial gambling interests. Further evidence (along with the dearth of new states approving iLottery) that we are going in the wrong direction. I do not understand how a legislature can approve sports betting, online sports betting, casino gambling, or online casino-style gambling, and not approve iLottery, which is what has happened in many states. This is so clearly contrary to common-sense and to the interests of the people that legislators are elected to serve, and so blatantly aligned with campaign contributions that are buying legislative support. Is there really nothing that can be done about this? Much of the content of this issue comes directly from the fabulous EL/WLA Marketing Seminar held every year in London in the first week of February. That date has been moved to the week of Jan. 21 to 24 in 2025 to coincide with the ICE Gaming Show. And both are moving to Barcelona. It is a wonderful week as so many industry leaders come together for these events. See photo collages pages 42-44. Our feature interview is with IonutValeriu Andrei whose presentation at the Marketing Seminar galvanized the audience to raise their expectations for how much can be accomplished in a short window of time to launch and build out an online lottery program. As Ionut explains, it involves launching multiple initiatives simultaneously, and taking on a small extra measure of risk to achieve outsized results in record time. All the presentations at the Seminar were fabulous. Featured also in this issue are articles based on two more of the best. We know that success at applying the tools and skill-sets of data-driven management is already separating the winners from the also-rans. Some of us just aren’t clear on the concrete steps involved in taking data analytics and execution to the next level. Zsófia Bánhegyi’s Seminar presentation and article on page 24 connects the dots, showing how data-science has become mission-critical to the goals of enhancing customer experience, enterprise profitability, and effective customer retention. Ross Sergeant tackles the confounding question of how marketing communications is being turned upside down by the changing media landscape. TV in particular, with impact declining and costs increasing in dramatic fashion. The solutions involve creative new approaches to drive multi-media synergies and elevating digital as the tail that wags the dog in the overall media mix. Lotteries in Europe: A Cultural Cornerstone, Social Contributor, and Economic Entity describes another very special EL event, a colloquium held in Brussels that helps us appreciate the serious societal role performed by government lottery. I ask our media partners IGT, Scientific Games, and NeoGames for genuinely insightful, research and evidence-based articles and they deliver. Thank you for sharing the benefit of the resources applied to analyze big-picture consumerbehaviour, retailing, and market-place trends and how they impact our own lottery-specific interests. We depend on you and appreciate your service to support lottery and good causes. We also include articles on the cuttingedge issues affecting the U.S. market. Keeping Brand-Lottery top-of-mind, for the consumer in general but the gamesof-chance player who is faced with more and more options in particular, is the topic of Simon Jaworski (our resident research genius) and the MUSL panel discussion held at our own PGRI SmartTech conference in March. Leading with Gratitude is another article based on a very special session also held at Smart-Tech. Susan and I are looking forward to seeing you all soon!!! Paul Jason, Publisher Public Gaming International Magazine
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTg4MTM=