This New York Lottery commercial from 2010 is a classic. If you’ve never seen it before, be prepared to laugh, or to be offended….either way, you won’t forget it.
You also won’t forget the follow up commercial.
We are always looking for new and innovative ways to improve OrderPad. We have developed and tested a new replication system, designed from the ground up that leverages SQL Server 2008 R2 Merge Replication. The OrderPad Enhanced Replication System introduces a number of new features and benefits to OrderPad end users, customer technical support staff, as well as OrderPad administrators. This new replication system represents a large step forward from the current replication engine.
Some of the most notable features include:
- Improvements to the client provisioning process which utilize database schema replication functionality to create local databases automatically.
- Simplified and streamlined updates to the OrderPad database which also leverage schema replication functionality. The concept of replication rules no longer exists.
- One way replication of tables that are only updated on the server which results in fewer replication conflicts and significantly less replication metadata and leads to smaller database sizes and faster synchs.
- Web Synchronization which allows remote users to synchronize OrderPad securely over SSL from any internet connection which eliminates the need for a VPN.
- Enhanced and simplified synchronization user interface that makes the status and results of a synch session much clearer and easier to understand.
- Web based replication management tools that can be used to monitor and manage the replication system.
- Multiple replication publications which allow mission critical data to be isolated during replication thus minimizing the chance of conflicts or errors encountered while replicating other tables from preventing important data from replicating to the server.
You can read more about it OrderPad Enhanced Replication System.
Two days ago, I opened up the Twitter client on my iPhone and immediately saw that Mega Millions was trending. If you don’t know what that means, it’s fairly simple. Twitter determines the top ten terms being tweeted and displays them on the official Twitter clients on the iPhone, Android, and on Twitter.com. You can see an example from my iPhone in the picture above; that bar on top rotates to display all of the current trending topics. Twitter mixes in a series of “promoted trends”, which are clearly marked as promoted, in with the trending topics. Advertisers shell out between $100,000 – $120,000 per day to buy promoted trends from Twitter according to the Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital blog, so it’s easy to put a value on the free promotion that the Mega Millions brand had that day. But, the best part about this was that the free promotion was generated organically by Twitter users discussing the huge $319 Mega Millions jackpot that was won by a single winning ticket sold in Albany, NY.
This is proof of what most lotteries already know; lottery players are using social media. As I write this, I did a Twitter search for Mega Millions and saw that one of the first results was a tweet from a user named “athoughtofyou” who tweeted “Today I will buy my first Mega Millions ticket”, proving not only lottery players use social media, future lottery players do too.
Oh yeah, and while we’re talking about Twitter, make sure to follow OrderPad and LotteryAnswers on Twitter.
One of the questions I’m asked most often is “Which Tablet PC do most of the other states that use OrderPad for Lotteries use.” That one’s easy; it’s the HP Elitebook 2740p (or one of its predecessors like the 2730p or the 2710p). The natural follow up questions include, “Are they happy with them?” and “Do they have any problems with them breaking?” At that point, I typically refer them to specific people in the other jurisdictions who can supply them with more information because I might not accurately reflect their level of satisfaction.
I posted that question on Lottery Answers, our newly launched private (lottery employee only) question and answer site which covers all topics relevant to running a lottery, and quickly got answers from Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland, New York, Ohio, and Maryland. To see what they had to say, sign in to Lottery Answers (or sign up) and search for PC to see the question and all of the answers.
Also, while you’re there you can browse some of the other questions that were asked by lottery employees, like:
- “What retailer financial information do you offer your retailers and corporate chains? How do you deliver those reports?”
- “Do you have a minimum sales requirement or guideline for vending machine sales?”
- “Are any lotteries investigating selling your whole suite of Lottery products via the Internet?”
- “For those lotteries that utilize ITVM, how do you distribute instant ticket voids for use as display in the ITVM?”
And, ask a question while you’re there!
1:30pm – Lifetime Achievement Awards begin – Paul Jason asks past award winners to join him at the front of the room.
Rebecca Hargrove, Jodie Winnet, Arch Gleason, Gordon Medenica, and Connie Laverty O’Conner speak about Margaret DeFransico, our first inductee.
Paul presents Margaret with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Chuck Klein speaks about our next inductee, Ed Trees.
Paul presents Ed Trees with the lifetime achievement award.
2:15pm – John Wilde, Strategic Alliance Manager, Jumbo Interactive takes the podium to discuss their Internet ticket sales offering.
2:25pm – Ori Nakar, Chief Technology Officer of Telescope, takes the podium to discuss their mobile marketing offering.
3:10pm – Paul Sternburg, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Lottery, takes the podium.
Paul describes how he recently returned to the Mass Lottery from the CT Lottery. Advertising budget in Mass is an issue; it is currently $2 million while the Lottery is generating $4 billion in sales. Also, he believes the movement away from focus groups has hurt instant ticket sales. Paul believes that although they are a mature lottery, growth is still possible. He believes social media is very important as is their collaboration with local sports teams. They just hired a new communications director and a going to hire somebody specifically for Twitter and Facebook.
Paul continues discussing how lotteries are a place where states should generate money, not where you cut to give money back to the general fund. You need to spend money to make money. The Mass Lottery is the 11th largest business in Massachusetts. He states that lotteries are much better suited to run gambling than any private company. He is fortunate to work for a Treasurer that understands and values the Lottery.
Paul sums up his presentation stating that he feels he has the greatest job in the world.
3:25pm – Andre Noel Chaker, Director of New Business for Veikkaus Oy, Finland. Andre is discussing Mobilizing for Good Causes.
Andre describes the 3 E’s of mobility. Moving from somewhere to EVERYWHERE, sometimes to EVERY TIME, and to knowing EVERYTHING about your customer. He also feels bad for the marketing budgets that the U.S. lotteries have. Last year, they sent 13 million personal messages to their players.
He stresses the need for social media and said that he is glad to hear that Mass Lottery will be hiring a social media director. Their first four years of Internet sales were slow, but they learned a lot and are now doing very well with it. He argues that your mobile business enhances your traditional business and vice versa; it is not an either/or proposition.
They generate $2.5 billion U.S. with a population of 5 million people. 25 percent of that is generated on the Internet. They launched a loyalty card 5 years ago; they now have 800,000 players with loyalty cards and almost 50% of their transactions are made using those cards. They don’t need to partner with other broadcast partners, since they have created their own TV channel.
The Lottery along with GTECH holds the record for largest online bingo room with over 2,500 players participating in a 7 minute game. They also have scratch games for iPad and iPhone.
3:50pm – Lottery Management Structures panel. Panelists include:
May Scheve, Executive Director, Missouri Lottery
Jodie Winnett, Acting Superintendent, Illinois Lottery
Connie Laverty O’Conner, Chief Executive Officer, Northstar Lottery Group
Martin Kon, Senior Partner with Oliver Wyman
May begins the discussion by describing the process that Missouri is going through in exploring privatization of the Lottery.
Martin Kon speaks about the core learnings that have occurred in their working with Illinois. First is that you must look at the value of a lottery with respect to its’ potential, rather than its’ relative performance compared to peers. He draws a parallel to the fact that Tiger Woods doesn’t stop practicing when he’s better than everybody else, he continues to try to reach his own potential. Second is borrowing best practices from outside of the industry that might be applicable to the lottery operator.
Jodi Winnett describes what is actually going on in Illinois and explains that they didn’t “sell” the Illinois Lottery and to do so would be illegal, based on a court ruling. What they did do is hire a private manager who will share in the risk and reward of expanding the lottery. Jodi describes that they hired Oliver Wyman as a transaction advisor. They looked at what the Illinois Lottery would generate in profits over the next 10 years. They then looked at the levers that the Illinois Lottery had that would allow them to perform better. In this agreement, when the state wins, the private manager wins. They then went to the marketplace and looked at potential private managers and held two rounds. The second round consisted of formulating a business plan examined the plan for credibility and the confidence that the operator had in that plan.
The agreement has a carrot and a stick. The carrot is shared profits above certain baselines. The stick is that the operator will compensate the state for shortfalls in profits compared to what the state believed they could generate on their own.
Northstar has boots on the ground and is actively working. Jodi is still responsible for licensing, claims, finance, and regulatory issues. They have been moving forward very quickly with this partnership. And it is a partnership of trust. As the Illinois Lottery benefits, the Northstar Lottery Group benefits.
Connie discusses her focus on providing results. They have a plan based on customer research. They are expanding distribution by adding to the retailer base. Connie describes Scientific Games as a fantastic partner. They need both distribution and great products to attract new players. They need to attract 4.5 million new players. The are millions of players who the lottery is not relevant for; they need to make this brand relevant for these people and Northstar is committed to doing that. She says that failure is not an option. They are undergoing a brand transformation.
Connie says it is all about relentless execution. Local understanding is crucial. This is a simple business; it’s all about retail execution.
9:00am – Paul Jason introduces Bill Murray, Deputy Director and General Counsel, New York Lottery and panelists:
Kurt Freedlund, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Georgia Lottery Corporation
Philippe Vlaemminck, Legal Advocate for the European Lottery Association
Dale McDonnell, Assistant Director and Legal Counsel, Minnesota Lottery
Kurt Freedulnd begins by discussing an effort to have the legal areas of all of the U.S. Lotteries work more collaboratively. He talks about the power of the lottery industry’s two national brands, Powerball and Mega Millions. Kurt asks the audience to consider national strategies and promotions to enhance these brands. Some ideas he proposes is to partner with national TV shows like Extreme Makeover Home Edition or do something similar to HGTV’s Dream Home contest. The industry could partner with national brands like Sears and a broadcast partner like ABC or HGTV to build 44 dream homes in the U.S. states that have lotteries. Perhaps a contest like this could be structured around a 2nd chance drawing for Powerball and Mega Millions to bring greater attention to these national brands.
Philippe takes the podium to discuss international issues and the “dormant commerce clause”. He states that on line gambling requires adequate regulation based upon local rules but the are some issues that require transnational solutions, including server location, liquidity, integrity of games, and law enforcement.
Philippe discusses the principle of subsidiarity which is based on a German constitutional principle that declares that regulation should occur at the lowest appropriate level of government, local, state or federal. He sees similarities between this principle in the European Union and the U.S. commerce clause which states when it is appropriate for the U.S. federal government to regulate commerce. Philippe describes how the EU Council Working Group concluded that Internet gambling requires a two-level government approach. He concludes by asking who in the U.S. will drive decisions concerning Internet gambling, the states or federal government, and advocates that it should be the states that do. Bill Murray agrees.
Dale is next to the podium to discuss Minnesota’s new Internet subscription system that was launched in November of last year and built in collaboration with Scientific Games. Minnesota’s online system is operated by GTECH and he describes the collaboration between Scientific Games and GTECH to make is system work including the method used to integrate the two systems. The system uses several methods to verify age and checks to make sure that the player has a valid Minnesota address. Players have generally been subscribing for a period of 6 weeks. There is also a geolocation check to ensure that the player is within the boundaries of Minnesota, but this has been somewhat troublesome with in-state players appearing to be out of state due to the way certain ISPs networks are configured.
Payment is made by withdrawing funds from the players checking account. Winning funds are then placed in a virtual wallet which can be used to extend subscriptions or buy new ones. Players can also request that these funds be deposited back into the player’s checking account which very few players have done. Players can set their own weekly spending limits and may elect to prohibit themselves from play for a certain time period or forever.
The Minnesota Lottery included information about the subscription system in its’ retailer newsletter and have received very little push back from retailers, but NACS has expressed concern. The Lottery believes that this system could attract new players that begin buying products at retail, like scratch tickets.
Kurt describes new features that will be added including: gift giving, promotions, wallet changes, report enhancements, group play enhancements, and web site enhancements.
Bill Murray takes the podium to discuss the New York Lottery’s Internet program. The Lottery had been selling subscriptions via the Internet since 2005 for Lotto and Mega Millions. In 2010, they transitioned to an outsourced system run by GTECH. Bill discusses the trials and tribulations of dealing with the credit card companies and the transaction codes that are used when processing these transactions. These issues in New York have since been resolved. The Lottery will be expanding this program to include more games this year.
Bill is now discussing intellectual property issues and the increasing IP claims. One such claim from the Gameologist Group is their claim that they own the word “bling” for use on lottery tickets and have sued the New York Lottery. Another claim is from PixFusion and its’ claim that they invented a technique that the New York Lottery has used on its’ Sweet Million promotional site to allow users to upload photos of themselves which are then placed into an animation. A third case is a claim by Walker Digital Lottery, who the New York Lottery works with on some efforts, has sued MUSL. In many cases, the companies seem to be trying to sue lotteries than win business with lotteries and the claimants have never implemented anything using the IP they claim to own.
Bill shifts his presentation to discuss how state lotteries teamed together to oppose Sen. Harry Reid’s Internet Poker Proposal which would be a program administered and licensed by the federal government. The senator abandoned this effort at the end of 2010 due to opposition by state lotteries and lottery vendors, but Bill warns that this effort at the federal level may be resurrected. The bill would have given an unfair advantage to casino operators located in Nevada.
10:40am – Coffee break.
11:00am – James Breso, CEO of Diamond Game, takes the podium to present their ITVM solutions.
11:10am – Don Feeney, Director Research and Planning for the Minnesota Lottery, takes the podium to discuss responsible gaming and social reponsibility. He begins by stating that “the least responsible company is the one that goes out of business,” and asks the audience to keep in mind that the social benefit of lotteries to generate revenue for good causes is inherently responsible during the rest of hid presentation. Don said that it is important for a company to have “doing right” as one of its’ core values. In addition, it is important for companies to fix mistakes quickly without laying blame. He argues that social responsibility adds value to the brand. Buying a lottery ticket is an irrational act and the social benefit of the money generated provides a rationale for players to take part in this irrational act, but it is important that players know about these good causes.
Don describes the responsible gaming controls that were built into the new Internet subscription system, which far exceed the controls at traditional retail, helped the Lottery gain approval for its’ initiative with lawmakers.
11:35am – Adam Perlow, CEO of OrderPad Software, and a handsome and powerful man, took the podium to launch Lottery Answers, www.lotteryanswers.com, a private and free web site for lottery employees to ask questions and share answers with each other. Examples of contributions by a small private test group of 60+ lottery employees was shared. Visit www.lotteryanswers.com right now and sign up for free.
11:45am – Panel discussion on Multi-State Collaboration and Forging Collective Action. The session is moderated by Gordon Medenica, the Director of the New York Lottery, and panelists include:
Jeff Anderson, Director of Idaho Lottery and President of NASPL
Anne Noble, President and CEO of the Connecticut Lottery
May Scheve, Executive Director of the Missouri Lottery
Tom Kitts, Deputy Director of the Colorado Lottery
Rebecca Hargrove, President and CEO of Tennessee Lottery
May Scheve begins the discussion by how lotteries can improve their image.
Gordon sets the stage for discussion. He begins by asking the panel about public policy and the federal government’s role in Internet gaming. Anne Noble describes the effort of lotteries collaborating well to fight that initiative and her belief that a unified voice is important in dealing with regulatory issues as well as dealing with national retailers. She also believes that each lottery should have a senior government affairs officer and they can all work collaboratively and NASPL could be a vehicle for moving this effort forward.
Jeff Anderson speaks to this issue as the NASPL president and commends Ed Trees for his role in fighting the Harry Reid bill on behalf as NASPL. Jeff believes that the vendors who are also NASPL members can play an important role as well. NASPL will work with those vendors closely in coming months.
Rebecca believes that while knowledge is power, money is more powerful and that lotteries should collectively raise money for lobbying. May proposes that while many directors are in Washington next month, they make appointments and meet with senators themselves arguing that nobody can tell the lottery story better than the lotteries themselves.
Tom Kitts reminds the panel that all politics is local and that efforts should be made locally as well as nationally.
Gordon shifts the discussion to Internet gaming and asks Jeff Anderson what role NASPL should play. Jeff said he has charged the NASPL staff with developing standards that NASPL member lotteries could employ around player protection, player identity, and more. Tom Kitts discusses e potential of national websites and talks about keeping entree to national programs at the local level and that he wants to drive players through the Colorado website. He says that we need to remember that Colorado residents care about Colorado and the lottery focuses on generating money for Colorado.
Anne and Gordon discuss the possibility of lotteries competing with each other when Internet gaming really comes to the U.S. and the potential for creating national poker games. Rebecca believes that there could be a national game where revenues get divided by the players location and go the appropriate lotteries.
Anne said she agrees with Tom in protecting the autonomy of individual state lotteries. She sees the need for national campaigns in dealing with national retailers and regulatory issues more than she does for advertising. Rebecca believes that national media buys will allow lotteries to get more advertising than they could individually. Tom Kitts believes that a national advertising campaign for the national brand games and likes Gordon’s proposal of having a share of game sales go into a national advertising pool if state funding rules will allow it.
The topic shifts to collaboration on game development and Gordon’s view is that it has stalled. Rebecca remains optimistic that as an industry we can pull together and come up with something that can raise revenues for all jurisdictions while acknowledging that some states may raise more than others. May, having been in the industry for a year, asks why the Powerball, Mega Millions, and NASPL meetings are all separate; apparently it is a long story.
Anne adds that there wasn’t fundamental agreement on cross sell, and some states like Connecticut are trying to make lemonade out of lemons. May appears to be frustrated at the rate of collaboration and asks what’s next? Jeff believes that it is still too early to judge the success of cross sell.
Gordon asks the panel if they think there is room for a national game or a world game in their product portfolios. May believes that Powerball is hurting Missouri’s prospects of reaching its’ financial goal, and that she’s running out of time. Anne cautions against changing a game to a $2 game without looking at the details of what would make the game worth $2. Anne also believes that some states worked against their own interest in the spirit of collaboration and maybe those states that did get hurt should have been rewarded. The example of D.C. is discussed. Buddy Roogow, director of the D.C. Lottery, says that while he was the director of the Maryland Lottery he supported cross sell and had he been director of the D.C. Lottery at the time, he still would have supported it for the good of those games.
Buddy asks the panel if they believe that MUSL works well as an organization. Specifically, if 2/3 of the lotteries support a $2 game, does it get appropriately considered? May gets a good laugh by stating that the Missouri House of Representatives is a highly dysfunctional organization second only to the dysfunction of MUSL. May thinks that the organization lacks process for getting things done.
3:30pm – Matt Pangborn, Vice President of Business Development, CyberArts/INTRALOT presents his view of the state of the industry.
3:40pm – James Oaks, Founder and CEO of Roboreus/GeoSweep presents Location-based Lotteries.
3:55pm – Alexander Manu, Business Innovation Consultant and Futurist takes the podium.
Alexander has just begun, but I can already tell that there is no way I can do his presentation justice by summarizing it in text format. You will need to wait until PGRI posts the video to www.pgritalks.com. While you’re waiting for the next session to begin, you may want to check out Alexander’s website at www.alexandermanu.com.
4:45pm – The Not for the Faint of Heart Panel begins. The panel is moderated by Paul Jason of PGRI and Gardner Gurney, New York Lottery’s Chief Operating Officer. The panelists include:
Jim Kennedy, Chief Marketing Officer, Scientific Games
James Oaks, CEO and Founder, Roboreus/GeoSweep
Matt Pangborn, VP Business Development, CyberArts/INTRALOT
Paul Riley, Vice President, Product Marketing, GTECH
The discussion begins by talking how about Gen Y’ers and their need to feel like part of a solution and movement and the potential for having individual players choose the good causes that their ticket proceeds go to. Jim Kennedy chimes in that all of their research suggests that the reason people buy tickets is the chance to win a lot of money, not necessarily for the social contribution. The social message may help attract certain retailers, but players want to win a lot of money.
The next question drives the conversation to the importance of focusing on brick and mortar retail outlets while lotteries look to invest in new mediums and technologies. New technologies will complement the existing business model rather than replace it.
Gardner asks the panel if they see more innovation coming from the European lotteries on North American Lotteries. Paul Riley said that he sees a new value of innovation amongst all lotteries and that as a result you see vendors partnering more than you did in the past. Doug Pollard believes that on the instant side, the RFPs have been fairly comparable between the U.S. and overseas and the fact that many lotteries are selecting mostly based on cost, doesn’t bode well for innovation. James Oaks believes that on the digital side, the European lotteries have been more innovative.
Paul Riley said that often RFPs focus on technical details like storage arrays and data center specifics rather than on Service Level Agreements and that lotteries could focus more on innovation than technical details that may not really matter.
Jim Kennedy said that the Illinois procurement was an incredible break from the ordinary model. The procurement stressed oversight and public protection as well as protection of the Illinois Lottery brand, but truly focused on the return to the state.
Paul Sternburg, Director of the Massachusetts Lottery, commented that the vendor community drives prices down, not the states demanding it. If the vendors are lowering their prices, the states are correct to take advantage of that and asked why the lotteries get blamed for that. Jim Kennedy replied that he’s not blaming the lotteries, but the current model is flawed and based on costs, rather than based on returns to the state. John Pittman from INTRALOT asked why lotteries ask for money for things after the contracts are in place and not during the bidding process and then vendors are forced to lose money.
The session closes for the day. Tune in tomorrow for more.
1:30pm – Rebecca Hargrove, President and CEO, Tennessee Education Lottery, moderates the panel and is joined by:
Philippe Vlaemminick, Legal Advocate for the European Lottery Association
Dermot Griffin, Chief Executive Officer, Irish National Lottery
Friedrich Stickler, Director Austrian Lotteries and President of the European Lotteries Association
Friedrich begins by discussing the complex regulatory environment in Europe. Europe is going through change in an attempt to liberalize and open gaming markets. There is a trend towards liberalization (Italy, Greece, and France) and a shift from the EU level to the national level. Off shore operators lobby increasingly in member states. They state that tax revenues are much higher in liberalized markets, but the evidence shows the contrary. Tax revenue is often 1% of turnover because the operators utilize a 95% prize payout. If the turnover is $1 billion, tax revenue would be only $10 million, which is a fraction of the funding that lotteries generate.
Friedrich suggests sanctions against illegal off shore providers including ISP blocking and payment blocking. He also believes that European Lotteries must clearly state their case against off shore operators since off shore operators are so effective at lobbying; it is important that the European Lotteries forge a united front.
The European Lotteries are committed to a sustainable gaming policy “which is based on the principles of solidarity, integrity, subsidarity, and precaution.” They believe that profits from gambling should be used for the benefit of society. Currently they return 22.4 billion EUR to society on turnover of 76.6 billion EUR and gross gaming revenue of 34.7 billion EUR.
Philippe now takes the podium. This is one of two SMART-Tech sessions Philippe will be presenting. He begins by providing history of the first debate at European level in 1992 which led to the first European court case.
He discusses a series of director meetings which led to the Vienna Resolutions which stated that there was common ground that there shouldn’t be open gaming markets.
Philippe discusses how the European Lotteries work together on legal issues and how they setup a Brussels office for that purpose. Their first results include stopping e-Commerce Directive, Services Directive, and Sales promotion regulation. They have also been effective at putting lotteries on the political agenda and putting principles into case law. One of these principles is the precautionary principle which means that you don’t know what the negative effects will be, you should proceed in a cautious manner.
The courts have put several limitations on lotteries. One of these limitations is that lotteries may not advertise that the proceeds go to good causes.
Philippe’s talk concludes with his proposal for a greater Trans-Atlantic dialogue between NASPL lotteries and European lotteries.
Rebecca begins the round table discussion. She asks how difficult it was to get 27 lotteries to agree when each has a unique political environment. Friedrich explains that they focus on the principles they agree on, which is fundamentally fighting open markets. They also discuss that dues for each lottery were increased to fund the Brussels lobbying operation.
Rebecca continues by asking how successful the European Lotteries have been at convincing th EU that they are the good ones and the off shore operators are the bad ones. Friedrich says that it is a constant ongoing effort. Dermot says that he believes this issue is just beginning to heat up.
Rebecca asks the panel about results of those markets, like Italy, that have opened. Friedrich believes that Italy will have an addictive gambling problem in the future as a result.
Rebecca asks what the NASPL lotteries and European Lotteries can learn from each other, aside from regulatory issues. Dermot answers that creating a world game would be a tremendous accomplishment.
Rebecca closes the session by saying that we should reach our hands across the ocean and all help each other.
3:00pm – Doug Pollard takes the podium to discuss paranormal instant games.
11:30am – Jenny Canfield, Director of Operations at the Minnesota Lottery, and Tom Weber, Deputy Commissioner of Marketing for the Michigan Lottery, co-present Portfolio Management.
Jenny described that Minnesota forces all retailers to carry all new games and Tom said that they do not do that in Michigan with $20 tickets since some small retailers could not financially handle those games.
Tom discussed that Powerball and Mega Millions cross selling has been very successful in Michigan and have provided the category with a lift.
Michigan added Club Games (Keno) and were generating $10 million per week and had added 2,500 retailers. A smoking ban went in effect last year and they saw a 15% drop in sales as a result. To help off-set that loss, Michigan Lottery added Keno To Go, which is the same Keno game available at all retail locations. Keno To Go generates roughly $1 million per week. As of last week, there is now a Michigan Lottery Keno app available on Apple’s App Store where players can see live Keno drawings. An Android app will be available soon.
Michigan Lottery is a big believer in self-service and employ approximately 2,000 self service devices. Minnesota will be working with Linq3 to begin selling out of ATMs later this year and hope that it will help them get into some big box retailers that they haven’t been able to.
12:10pm – Amy Bergette Hill, Senior Vice President of MDI Interactive takes the podium to describe MDI Interactive’s offerings.
12:30 – Lunch break
9:00 am – Paul Jason opens up the conference by speaking about how the industry is going through tremendous change and highlighting some interesting conversations he had with lottery leaders last night.
9:10 am – New York Lottery Director Gordon Medenica takes the podium to discuss how lotteries across the country are being wrongly criticized, in some cases for being too successful. He urged lottery directors to defend colleagues from other jurisdictions who may be unjustly under fire.
Gordon continues to discuss how lotteries have worked together recently to implement Powerball and Mega Millions cross-selling and to work on legislative issues. He urges lotteries to work closer together on other issues in the future, especially advertising and forming national advertising campaigns for national brands like Powerball and Mega Millions. He proposes that a 1% advertising fee is worked into the game prize structures to fund a nation-wide advertising effort. This 1% ad budget translates into roughly $6 million per year; if the budget was 2%, it would be slightly more than that of FedEx and UPS in terms of real dollars while still below those brands in terms of percentage of revenue.
9:30 am – Michelle Carinci, President and CEO of Atlantic Lottery Corporation, takes the podium and begins her talk by discussing the reason lotteries exist. She describes that they were formed to make illegal gambling, which was uncontrolled and dangerous, controlled and safe. While accomplishing those goals, lotteries also raise money for good causes and create jobs, including 9,000 jobs in Atlantic, Canada alone.
Michelle then talks about the way that technology is changing the world and changing players expectations. Michelle uses Blockbuster as an example of what happens if you ignore change rather than embrace it and says that the time Blockbuster should have been changing their business model was when they still had 90% market share. The longer you wait to embrace change and adapt your product offerings to it, the more expensive, difficult, and risky it becomes.
Michelle discusses how lotteries must reposition their offerings and states that players want something that we aren’t providing. The next wave will be customization of experiences to individual players. Atlantic Lottery has been offering their traditional games on the Internet since 2004, but need to transition to the next generation of products. She also discusses how Internet gaming, and having one central player database, makes it easier to enforce responsible gaming in a meaningful way that is much more powerful than anything you can do at traditional retail.
10:10am – Georgia Lottery’s President and CEO, Margaret DeFrancisco takes the podium to talk about collaboration and begins by showing an example of collaboration, her first grandchild.
She then describing a promotion that the Lottery completed to embrace new players which was a Georgia Lottery branded music search.
Phase I – Build relationship on Facebook – consisted of videos, polls, celebrity postings, and giveaways.
Phase II – Develop a relevant product – collaboration with advertising firms, Lottery, and Pollard Banknote to create a ticket where players could win an all expense paid trip to Las Vegas as well as music downloads and cash prizes.
Phase III – Consisted of innovative advertising and media.
Phase IV – Launch “All Access Music Search” where there were many in person events and a televised special that placed 2nd in its time slot.
The result was an incredibly fun and entertaining promotion that positioned Georgia Lottery as a relevant entertainment option to Gen Y.
10:40am – Jaymin Patel, GTECH’s President and CEO, takes the podium to discuss his view of the industry and prospects for industry growth.
