Page 69 - Public Gaming International September/October 2017

At OLG, on the other hand, our primary Dato Lawrence Lim Swee Lin: the population. At this moment, the Chinese
purpose is to generate a profit for Ontario. This would be the illegals using social media Government has not given any indication of
Our shareholder is the Government of technologies and new e-payment services to a likelihood of allowing online betting in
Ontario—and focus is more than profit. connect with the customers, engage them the Country.
In fact, our mission is to generate revenue with new and different value propositions,
for the Province, stimulate and enhance and make it more convenient for the custom- India is another very populous nation that
economic development and promote high ers to play with them. continues to face challenges with its laws and
standards of responsible gambling—all in And thank you for the compliments and regulations across its various States. Until
these are resolved at the Federal level, it will
the best interests of the Province of Ontario. glad you managed to find time to attend an be very difficult for the Lotteries to progress
APLA event. Hope to see you in Auckland in a larger scale there. APLA recognizes the
We have in fact been working on enhanc- for our annual event end of October! importance of India as a country in Asia
ing public understanding of why we do Pacific and as such, have selected the 2018
what we do. OLG’s “All for Here” corpo- How is Magnum Transforming over the next April Seminar to be held in India. More
rate campaign where we talk about how three years to protect itself from those disrup- information will be disclosed soon.
100 percent of our proceeds are invested in tions (or maybe Magnum will itself be the
Ontario. The campaign focused on commu- disrupter)? As you just explained, there are lots of differ-
nities and causes that have been supported ences within the huge region which constitutes
with OLG funds. The purpose was very Dato Lawrence Lim Swee Lin: Asia Pacific. Likewise, there are differences
much to draw that link between our busi- Magnum will be 50 years old next year and within the regions of Europe, North America,
ness and the benefits it brings to Ontario. is embarking onto a holistic Brand refresh to South America, and other regions in the world.
rejuvenate herself to be more appealing to the That makes it hard to generalize a comparison
younger generation of players. This includes of one region to another. Still, does anything
Somewhat peripheral to that idea … What can a refresh of the physical outlets, improved strike you as an interesting difference between
we do to make playing the lottery the cool thing customer service handling, improved digi- the gaming markets of Asia Pacific and, for
to do, an activity that everyone shares with tal communication strategies, focus on the instance, Europe or North America?
their friends because they are proud to play customer journey just to name a few.
the lottery and they want everyone to know Dato Lawrence Lim Swee Lin:
how clever they are for finding this amazingly How would you describe some of the differ- A notable difference is the way the Lottery
fun game to play. ences between markets within the Asia Pacific is being marketed. In the Asian countries,
region? Differences in gaming cultures, the it is not common to allow above the line
Wendy Montgomery: kinds of games the players like to play, promo- advertisements on Lotteries.
OLG lottery products are amazingly fun to tional methods and media, business operations, In Malaysia and Singapore, the fixed odds
play. We don’t need to become something regulatory frameworks and political attitudes, 4Digit game reigns supreme and is a favorite
we are not but we do need to be the best we responsible gaming, etc.? amongst the players there, whereas in the
can be. We will never be the next Pokeman other Asia Pacific regions, it is the Lotto style
Go so we should not aspire to do that. Pop Dato Lawrence Lim Swee Lin: game that dominates the landscape. As for
phenomenons typically fade quickly anyway. The Asia Pacific region primarily covers the emerging Lotteries in other parts of Asia
countries like Australia, New Zealand, Pacific, pre-printed paper-based tickets are
OLG has more assets in its core product, Japan, China/Hong Kong, Korea, India still being marketed there.
brand value, reputation, network of retailers and the South East Asian countries like
than any other games-of-chance operators. Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, How do you think the needs and expectations
And our games have far more lifetime value Cambodia, etc. There are varying degrees of APLA members will be changing over the
than any other game in history. We just of maturity across these regions with very next three years? And, how will APLA evolve
need to harvest it all to better effect. n different regulatory frameworks. to meet the needs of a changing market-place?

Thailand is still operating with the passive Dato Lawrence Lim Swee Lin:
paper lotteries while Philippines have started The Lottery industry is facing challenges
Dato Lawrence to move to expand their portfolio of games from new start-ups, new business models
Continued from page 30 and channels. Australia and New Zealand and new technologies that are being
are the more advanced countries in the AP deployed; not to mention black lotteries.
Region while Japan is very cautious with APLA will continue to stay relevant in meet-
in Chengdu, China. What do you see as the their legislation. China’s market is huge but ing its objectives to advance the goals and
most likely disrupters of the Malaysian gaming still have lots to work on in terms of the collective interests of its Members and to
market-place? numerous provinces it has to deal with and enhance the capability, common knowledge
the span of media and distribution to reach and status of individual Members. n

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