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// PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL // January/February 2016
PUBLIC GAMING
INTERVIEWS
Inmaculada
GARCÍA MARTÍNEZ
President & Chief Executive Officer,
Sociedad Estatal de Loterías y Apuestas del Estado (SELAE),
State Lotteries of Spain
Member of the Executive Committees of the World Lottery
Association (WLA) and the European Lottery Association (EL)
Chair of the Public Order and Security Committee for the EL
Senior Vice President of CIBELAE, the Association of
Ibo-American Lotteries
On Adapting to a Rapidly Changing Market-Place
And see page 58 for more on the Amazing Spanish Christmas Lottery, “El Gordo”
PGRI Introduction:
The State Lotteries of Spain (officially the Sociedad Estatal Loter-
ías y Apuestas del Estado or SELAE) is a public Company tasked with managing a
variety of lottery games throughout Spain. The SELAE network consists of 11,000
retail outlets, 700 employees, and 55 sales offices. Its 2015 sales of €8,628,345,000
makes it one of the largest Lotteries in the world. The Spanish Lottery El Gordo (the
Fat One) is one of the most successful lottery games in the world. It’s “Christmas Lottery” draw on December 22
awarded €2.24 billion in prizes, considered to be the largest prize pool in the world. SELAE is an amazing operation
with a relentless focus on Continuous Improvement.
Inmaculada García
was appointed President & CEO of SELAE in September 2013. She brought to this position ex-
tensive leadership experience, managing senior executives in the sphere of the public administration of Economic and
Financial issues. She joined the High Corps Inspectors of Finance in 1988. As inspector of the State Finances, she
was mandated to Olot, Tarragona and Murcia, where she was Head of the Regional Technical Office and Regional
Head of Collection. In 2003, Ms García was appointed to the Ministry of Finance in the Region of Murcia and subse-
quently the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Economy, Enterprise and Innovation until 2011. From March 2012 to
September 2013 she acted as the Commissioner for the reconstruction and economic recovery of the area of Lorca
until she was appointed President of the State Lotteries.
As President and CEO of SELAE, Ms García is currently leading the company to improve the business and integrate
new technologies in lottery products and services. Since her appointment, she has restructured the company and
re-designed the strategy in order to the Lottery playing experience with the technological needs of the 21st century.
Due to the size of business, history and experience of SELAE, Ms García is convinced that the participation of SELAE
in the Boards of international bodies is crucial. Ms García is a great advocate of the need for Lotteries to have an even
bigger and stronger international alliance to defend the interests of our industry and stakeholders.