73 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 The WLA website describes the lottery business model as: “In each recognized jurisdiction, typically either a country or a state or territory (within a federation), a national lottery is given an exclusive license to operate lotteries. In return for this exclusive license, the lottery must operate its business of offering fun and entertaining games to the public under strict regulation, exercising responsibility with respect to minors and vulnerable groups, and returning all or most of the profit generated from its games to society. In this way, state lotteries constitute a sustainable source of income for the public good. In practice, the lottery business model ensures that there is a direct correlation between playing the games of your local state-regulated lottery and supporting your community. Every time you play, your community wins.” But how does a jurisdiction find an operator who will responsibly offer fun and entertaining games under strict regulation, whilst returning all or most of the profit generated from its games to society? The Request for Proposal (RFP) process is the popular choice to find the ‘right’ operator. Less formal processes are available, but such processes may fail to identify the best operator (vendor) and the best plan for accomplishing the described lottery (the project). We agree that the RFP is the better process because it can solicit bids from qualified and experienced lottery operators in an open and transparent manner. The process is necessarily comprehensive and requires applicants to submit huge amounts of information. This is necessary to enable issuing authorities to find the right solution, the best financial model and the right operator for its lottery activity. The RFP is not only able to procure the ‘right’ information from applicants, but it also provided clear evaluation methods and criteria. Unfortunately, the process is not infallible. For example, in 2000, the UK RFP process compelled the Gambling Commission to negotiate an interim license with the incumbent to extend the process. They declared that the process “did not run smoothly” and that they had to reject all the applications “because they failed to satisfy the statutory criteria.” The appropriateness of the RFP process, the fallibility of it and the World Lotteries Association’s strategy to support new and developing lottery jurisdictions must have played a role in the decision to develop the Global WLA RFP Standard Template in 2006 for use by any lottery in any state, province, or country worldwide. The introduction of the Global RFP (so named in the standard) was well accepted. The Global RFP recommends the content, format, and policies that should be included in the RFP. It recommends the structure and defines recommended standard text. It does not dictate that the recommended text should be used, and users are free to add or change requirements in the standard text. Text in the RFP is extremely important because if the RFP is not well-written, the submitted proposals may not meet expectations and the authority may not find the ‘right’ operator. But this standard was written 16 years ago, and recently authorising authorities are more willing to make comprehensive changes to the Global RFP or use their own RFP documents. So, this is our question. Is the Global RFP still relevant today? Or perhaps more important, Does it still constitute best practice? Before, we address the question, we must highlight three matters. (1) We have worked recently with RFP By Philippe Vlaemminck & Dawid Muller* www.vlaemminck.law Philippe Vlaemminck is founder and managing partner of Vlaemminck.Law. Based in Brussels, Vlaemminck.law focuses on legal and regulatory issues relating to the global community of lottery operators and the European Union. philippe.vlaemminck@vlaemminck.law Dawid Muller is based in Pretoria, South Africa. He is a founder and a co-owner at Division One Advisory, a lottery and gaming management and support services company. dawid@div-one.com THE GLOBAL RFP: FROM 2006 TO MOROCCO
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