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November/December 2015 // PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL //
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Tom Shaheen
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT,
LINQ3
Tom’s 27-year career in the lottery in-
dustry includes 22 years with five different
lotteries, and five years with Linq3, a tech-
nology company specializing in enabling
lottery sales at unmanned point-of-sale devices. Tom’s bound-
less drive, high level of integrity, work ethic, willingness to take
calculated risks, and perseverance have led him from his start
in 1987 as a sales representative with the Florida Lottery to be-
come director of two different state lotteries and success in the
community of commercial partners to government lotteries. In
1992, Tom joined the Texas Lottery start-up team. In 1993, Tom
moved on to become Vice President of Sales as part of the Geor-
gia Lottery start-up team. During his tenure with the Georgia
Lottery, he was promoted to Senior Vice President of Sales and
Marketing, and then Executive Vice President.
In 2000, Tom was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the
New Mexico Lottery Authority. Under Tom’s leadership, lottery
sales in New Mexico rose by 40% and the return to education
increased by 55%. In December of 2005, Tom left the New
Mexico Lottery to become the inaugural Executive Director of
the North Carolina Education Lottery (NCEL). The launch in
March of 2006 set a new benchmark for the fastest US lottery
start-up at that time. Among other things, that involved the in-
stallation of over 5,000 retailers in 115 days. The NCEL went
on to post consecutive sales and profit growth each year while the
retail base grew to over 6,200. Upon his departure in September
2010, total NCEL sales had grown to over $5 billon.
Tom Shaheen is also dedicated to service of the Government
Lottery industry. Tom served as the President of NASPL in 2005,
and as President of MUSL in 2009-2010. He previously served
as Chairman of the NASPL Standards Initiative Committee
in 2004, and on several other NASPL and Multi-State Lottery
(MUSL) committees that advance the industry in both prod-
uct development and integrity. During his tenure as President of
MUSL, he served on the national cross-selling committee and
was a major contributor to its implementation. A by-product of
this committee resulted in lotteries across the U.S continuing to
this day to develop and implement joint games as well as joint
advertising campaigns.
In September 2010 Tom joined Linq3 and serves as Executive
Vice President. He has played a significant role in Linq3’s devel-
opment of new distribution channels for selling lottery tickets on
non-traditional point of sale devices. He has been instrumental
in providing Linq3 with guidance on how the model should be
designed to meet the requirements, needs and concerns of state
lotteries, their gaming vendor partners, and MUSL.
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Philippe Vlaemminck
PARTNER AND CHAIR OF ITS
GAMING LAW PRACTICE GROUP,
ALTIUS LAW FIRM
Philippe became involved in the Euro-
pean debate on Lotteries and Gambling
in 1992. On an ongoing basis since 1994,
Philippe has represented the Belgian Government in all cases on
lotteries and gambling (more than 40 cases up to now) at the
Court of Justice of the European Union (comparable to the US
Supreme court). In 2010, Philippe assisted the Presidency of the
Council of the European Union in adopting Conclusions (with
unanimity of all European States) whereby for the first time ever
the “specific role of state lotteries for society” was recognized.
This is a vital step towards differentiating the role and regulatory
treatment of state government lotteries from that of commercial
gambling and i-gambling enterprises.
In 2000, Philippe came to work with the Belgian National
Lottery, assisting them in reorganizing the legal and contractual
structure of their retail network and other intermediaries. Ad-
ditionally, at the request of the Belgian Government, he drafted
a new National Lottery law. He now serves in the defense of the
Belgian government (both the National Lottery and the Gaming
Commission) in infringement procedures launched against the
Kingdom of Belgium.
For the past 20 years, Philippe has served as the legal adviser
of The European Lotteries (EL), providing strategic EU regula-
tory assistance. He helped the EL in developing the EU regula-
tory approach and created the EL quarterly Legal newsletter. On
behalf of the EL, and also partially on behalf of the WLA, he
has also been involved in the trade dispute, and supported the
opposition of efforts by UK-based remote gambling operators to
provide i-gaming to US consumers (WTO &TBR cases on cross
border Internet gambling services ).
He assist on a regular basis European state Lotteries ( includ-
ing a.o. in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Lat-
via, Luxemburg, Malta, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, The
Netherlands …) in developing a consistent EU legislative ap-
proach, and in litigation and/or defense against allegations of
the European Institutions. Philippe is also highly involved in the
legal structure of the multi-jurisdictional EuroMillions game.
He started his career as a Member of the Bar in Belgium in
1984. He also worked part-time at the European Institute of the
University of Gent (research on EU law), as a visiting professor
at this University from 1999 until 2001, teaching European Ju-
dicial protection.
Philippe speaks on a regular basis at international lottery con-
ferences and seminars (including EL, WLA, Smart Tech, and in
October 2015 also at NASPL). He publishes in various lottery
and gaming journals including in the EL Magazine and Public
Gaming International.
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