18 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • JULY/AUGUST 2026 operate under entirely different economic and regulatory models. “If we fall into the trap of trying to compete toe-to-toe, then we will fail. They have different rules and different business models. We can’t outspend them or let them define the competitive landscape.” Lottery needs to differentiate itself more clearly and deliberately. Fisher emphasized the assets that are uniquely lottery’s: scale, trust, and the ability to collaborate across jurisdictions in ways few other gaming sectors can replicate. “We are getting huge success with multi-state instant games,” he noted, pointing to shared liquidity models as a glimpse of what is possible when lottery leans into its structural advantages. That combination of scale and cooperation, if paired with meaningful innovation, creates a path forward that does not depend on mimicking competitors. The implication is that lottery’s strength lies not in becoming more like everything else, but in becoming more fully what it already is—modernized, expanded, but still distinct. It is a subtle shift in mindset, but one that has significant strategic consequences. That sense of cautious optimism was echoed, but also sharpened, by Paul Riley, who brought the conversation back to measurable outcomes. Stagnant or declining sales constitute failure by any reasonable standard. But surely flat or slow growth does not qualify as success, regardless of how strong the brand or legacy may be. Riley pointed to the two primary levers in the business—content and distribution—and suggested that many of the traditional tools for driving growth have already been deployed. “We’ve already innovated on many fronts,” he said, noting that while many opportunities remain, the path forward is not as straightforward as it once was. He emphasized that past resilience does not guarantee future performance. From the perspective of Brooks Pierce, the issue is less about survival and more about pace. “I don’t think it’s a question of lotteries failing,” he said, but he quickly added that the industry operates at a different speed than the broader gaming sector. In the commercial gaming sector, innovation is driven by a highly competitive ecosystem of suppliers, each pushing to create better, more engaging content. That openness creates a feedback loop of experimentation and improvement, something that lottery, with its more controlled structure, has not fully embraced. “The best content providers are the ones who win,” Pierce observed, suggesting that greater openness to competition and new ideas could unlock a new phase of growth. Sustainable growth is the goal, and part of the solution is creating the conditions under which innovation can flourish. Chasing the Next Generation Without Losing the Core If the structural challenge is one dimension of the problem, the demographic question is another. Can lottery attract younger players without alienating its core audience? The instinct is to frame this as a generational divide, but the panel repeatedly circled back to a more nuanced understanding rooted in life stages rather than age cohorts. Riley captured the practical reality succinctly: “Youth is all about convenience. They live on their mobile phones.” Without a robust digital channel, lottery is not even present in the environments where younger consumers spend their time. Yet even as he emphasized the necessity of digital access, he acknowledged the constraints that continue to limit progress, from payment restrictions to regulatory barriers. “We are successful in spite of the restrictions placed on lottery that are not applied to others in the games-of-chance industry.” Pierce expanded the conversation beyond youth to a broader concept of portfolio strategy. The goal, he said, is not simply to attract a younger audience, but to serve a wider range of player preferences. “Not everybody plays the same,” he said, noting that some players seek frequent, smaller wins while others are drawn to large, infrequent jackpots. This diversity of motivations suggests that growth will come not from targeting a single demographic, but from expanding the range of experiences available. A well-constructed portfolio can accommodate multiple player types simultaneously, reducing the need to choose between legacy audiences and new ones. In that sense, the youth question becomes less about replacement and more about expansion of options. For Blake Goldman, the generational divide is often overstated. “The values that are unique to lottery such as transparency, authenticity, and good causes are universal and timeless and transcend generations,” he said, challenging the idea that younger players are fundamentally different. What has changed is not the underlying motivation, but how those motivations are expressed and experienced. Younger consumers still care about impact and meaning, but they expect to encounter those ideas in formats that are immediate, visual, and embedded in their daily digital lives. Goldman emphasized that the opportunity lies in how the story is told, pointing to social media and quick, engaging experiences as key. In his view, the gap today is not in the games themselves, but in how effectively their stories are brought to life. Fisher added an important layer to this discussion by distinguishing between motivation and reinforcement. “People don’t play because of good causes,” he said plainly, noting that the primary driver remains the chance to win. However, he said, the presence of good causes provides a powerful secondary justification, one that reinforces participation and differentiates lottery from its competitors. More fundamentally, Fisher challenged the assumption that younger adult players must be actively converted at an earlier stage. “It’s a life-stage thing,” he said, pointing out that lottery has historically benefited from a natural progression as players age into its value proposition. The strategic imperative, then, is not to accelerate that timeline, but to ensure that when the moment arrives, the product is relevant, accessible, and compelling. Competing in an Attention Economy, Not Just a Gaming Market The competitive landscape complicates all of this. Lottery is competing not only against other forms of gaming, but against an entire ecosystem of digital experiences that define consumer expectations. Goldman captured this simply: “People want to pick up their phone, click, and it’s done.” That expectation, shaped by e commerce, streaming, and social media, has become the baseline for Continued on page 50
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTg4MTM=