This is a heady time for
the lottery industry. U.S.
sales last year exceeded a
staggering $72 billion, with
more than $20 billion in
proceeds going to all man-
ner of good causes, most
notably including educa-
tion programs and post-
secondary
scholarships,
aftercare initiatives, conser-
vation efforts, and services
for senior citizens, among
dozens of others. With the recent addition of Wyoming, the number
of state lotteries has now reached 44, and when you add the District
of Columbia and the Virgin Islands, it’s clear that the overwhelm-
ing percentage of Americans welcome and embrace the Lottery as
a form of inexpensive entertainment and a vital source of needed
public sector funding.
Sure, plenty of major challenges loom just over the horizon—om-
inous regulatory threats and emerging demographic changes being
the most obvious and concerning—but there is little question that
the animating forces within the industry are producing innovations
and technological changes designed to meet those challenges, giv-
ing rise to a spirit of optimism and excitement about what lies ahead.
Within the industry, this keen sense of anticipation about the future
direction of Lotteries is almost palpable and borders on the exuberant
at times (even as we sometimes bemoan “jackpot fatigue” or other
temporary trends that get our collective teeth gnashing.)You can feel
it at our industry conferences, where panels of industry experts, ven-
dors, and gaming officials crackle with new ideas, as well as in the
quiet private meetings and social gatherings where industry stalwarts
and newcomers alike strategize on how best to prevail in the new
gaming millennia. And we see it on the glossy pages of our trade
journals, each filled with rhapsodic testimonies to the newest equip-
ment, the increasingly sophisticated software, and the creative digital
platforms that will, unquestionably, take our industry to new levels.
All of this enthusiasm is well-founded. The excitement about
where we are heading as an industry—and how we will get there-
-is entirely understandable. This is a transformative time, and its
fun to be in the vanguard charting the course. We’ll likely look
back years from now and see this current period as a transitional
one, a phase that culminates with the industry moving into a vastly
more technologically dominant and sophisticated era, one defined
by a ubiquitous internet, endless variety of mobile apps, seamless
player interactivity, and elegant software solutions for virtually all
our transactions and data crunching needs, just to hit the highlights.
At the Tennessee Lottery we recently went through a major pro-
curement process where we were treated to a dizzying display of
the technology now available in the industry, including previews of
the next iterations of hardware and gaming systems that will drive
future lottery operations and enhance the enjoyment of the playing
public. These developments—both current and next generation—are
impressive to the point of mind- boggling: Exciting advances in ter-
minals, video monitors, vending machines, ticket checkers, telecom-
munications systems, predictive ordering, warehouse sorting, secu-
rity protections, gaming systems, software applications of every sort.
And it goes on and on. All of which will make lottery operations
more efficient, more secure, considerably faster and more reliable.
Much like these infrastructure advancements, there is enormous
creativity on the game side, too. With easy access to an array of in-
formation resources and cutting-edge graphics, we have the means
to develop clever and attractive new instant tickets each month, with
many more on the drawing board. An unprecedented world game
is in the works, not quite ready but moving towards completion
and acceptability one day. And, at last, we now have a soon-to-be-
launched, premium, national drawing-style game with a powerful
brand, an advertising-marketing punch, and an innovative design
structure that will surely find approval among our consumers while
providing an impactful presence on our accounting ledgers.
Not to evangelize unrealistically, but with all this it’s hard not to
be excited about the ascendant path that new technologies open up
for the lottery industry. 21st Century here we come.
Unless, that is, in the process we lose sight of our core values.
With all the promise the future holds, what the coming era will
not do is alter our essential product. Without an understanding of
and devotion to our essential product, no technology revolution,
however useful to our operations, will sustain the Lottery industry.
And by “product” I don’t mean flashy instant games or finely cali-
brated drawing-style play or even the emerging web-based games
that will surely find a place in our future. Rather, as my boss and
Lottery mentor Rebecca Paul Hargrove puts it, the one fundamen-
tal product of the Lottery is—integrity. “It is absolutely crucial to
our business,” as the Hargrove creed holds, “that every player have
the same chance of winning as every other player. Otherwise, why
would one play at all?”
Integrity is foundational for any successful business, but it is
profoundly necessary in the Lottery business where we are essen-
tially selling a process, one that provides hope, a prospect of win-
ning, a chance for a reward. If the player knows that the process
61
September/October 2014 • Public Gaming International
Government Gaming
Enters an Era of
Innovation and Growth
Tom Jurkovich, Vice President for Corporate
Affairs, Tennessee Education Lottery
