Public Gaming Magazine September-October 2016

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10 // PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL // September/October 2016
From the
Publisher
Congratulations to the 2016 Lottery Industry Hall of Fame in-
ductees! The 68 members of the PGRI Lottery Industry Hall of
Fame have voted for and elected five new members.
The five 2016 Hall of Fame inductees:
• Dermot Griffin, Chief Executive of Premier Lotteries Ireland
(PLI), Operator of the Irish National Lottery
• Hansjörg Höltkemeier, Managing Director and Member of the
Board of Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin (DKLB), President of
the European Lottery Association (EL)
• Rose J. Hudson, President & Chief Executive Officer, Louisi-
ana Lottery Corporation Lotteries, First Vice President of the
North American Association of State and Provincial (NASPL)
• Norman Lingle, Executive Director of the South Dakota Lottery
• Sue van der Merwe, Chief Operating Officer, Tatts Group Lotteries
The Lottery Industry Hall of Fame was founded in 2005 as a
means of honoring those who have done the most to promote ex-
cellence and integrity in our industry and make the world lottery
industry the great success. The recipients of this award are all a
credit to that ideal and are joining a select and distinguished group
of world lottery industry professionals. The bio’s of the five 2016
inductees will be published in the November issue of this magazine.
You can read more about the Lottery Industry Hall of Fame and the
members at
The Ceremony to induct the two North American industry lead-
ers into the Lottery Hall of Fame will be held Tuesday, October
4th at 2:30 pm at NASPLAtlanta Conference (room TBA).
The Ceremony to induct the three Global industry leaders into the
Lottery Hall of Fame will be held Tuesday, November 8th at 5:00
pm at the World Lottery Summit Conference Marina Bay Sands
in Singapore (room TBA).
Our interview with Tom Delacenserie continues our focus and ad-
vocacy for the development of the API (Application Programming
Interface) for government-lotteries across the world, and for U.S.
lotteries in particular. We had a half-day session on this topic at the
PGRI Smart-Tech NYC conference inApril which was synopsized for
a report published in our July issue. And will have another half-day
session at PGRI Lottery Expo in Miami on Sept 13. The benefits of
creating the common language and IT platform that facilitates digital
communication between lotteries, suppliers, and distribution channel
partners are so compelling as to make the API an indispensable part
of our future. The challenge is that it requires collaboration between
many different parties to design and implement. There is nothing dif-
ficult or problematic about implementing the API. Almost all other in-
dustries deployed theAPI years ago. The challenge is that everyone (or
at least a critical mass of lotteries) needs to agree to work together to
create a single IT platform and common language. It’s not hard to do,
it just requires the will to engage in an intensive collaborative effort.
PGRI conferences (two a year—one in March in New York and
one in Miami in September) have evolved a rather unique brand
for their focus on advocacy, the need to drive change and progress.
Our events are really not about “education.” As vital as education
is to the development of the future leaders of the lottery business,
the industry associations provide a superlative and comprehensive
educational program to meet that need. The World Lottery Asso-
ciation (WLA), the European Lottery Association (EL), the North
American Lottery Association (NASPL), Asia-Pacific (APLA), Lat-
in America (CIBELAE), and Africa (ALA)—all provide excellent
seminars that cover every issue relevant to this business of operating
a government lottery. PGRI events endeavor to promote understand-
ing of and support for initiatives that will benefit the industry going
forward. We cover regulatory, legal, and political issues. We explore
ways to improve stakeholder relations. We drill down on ways to
engender more support from stakeholders like retail partners as well
as lawmakers and others who influence the shaping of public policy.
We explore ways to carve out a bigger slice of media mind-share,
especially national and global media sectors.
Thank you to all of our interviewees and editorial contributors! Your
insights are invaluable and we so appreciate your willingness to share.
Our SMART-Tech New York event is still a few months away.
But we are getting started early to ensure a great program and to en-
able you to plan ahead. Mark your calendars for March 20, 21, and
22 in NYC for this popular event. Visit for con-
ference info, updates, and registration and room reservations links.
Thank you for your support and see you at PGRI Lottery Expo,
NASPLAtlanta, G2E Las Vegas, and then the bi-annual World Lot-
tery Summit in Singapore. This will be a busy and rewarding fall
conference season! ■
Paul Jason, Publisher
Public Gaming International Magazine
PGRI conferences have evolved a rather
unique brand for their focus on advocacy,
the need to drive change and progress.
Our events are really not about “education.”
As vital as education is to the development
of the future leaders of the lottery business,
the industry associations provide a
superlative and comprehensive educational
program to meet that need.