50 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • JULY/AUGUST 2026 how consumers interact with everything. If lottery feels slower, more cumbersome, or less intuitive, it risks losing attention not only to gaming competitors, but to anything competing for time and engagement. The competition is no longer limited to the category. Fisher cautioned against misinterpreting that competition as a mandate to imitate. Casino and lottery, he argued, are fundamentally different in both structure and appeal. “Casino is about the thrill of the risk of losing money,” he said, while lottery is about hope, aspiration and life-changing outcomes. The danger lies in assuming that success in one domain can be translated into another. “It’s like saying more people watch football than basketball—so maybe we should change the shape of the ball?” he quipped, underscoring the importance of preserving the integrity of the product. Learning from adjacent industries is valuable, but only when filtered through the lens of what makes lottery distinct. Pierce, however, offered a counterpoint grounded in experience. Drawing on the trajectory of the horse racing industry, he warned against complacency. “The horse racing business kept saying the audience would replenish itself,” he said, noting that this assumption ultimately proved false. Consumer preferences evolved, alternatives multiplied, and the industry entered a steady decline. The lesson for lottery is not to abandon its identity, but to recognize that identity alone is not enough to sustain relevance. Adaptation must be continuous and intentional, not reactive or assumed. Retail, Digital, and the Battle for Relevance Amid these broader concerns, one area of consensus emerged as both a strength and a potential vulnerability: retail. For Riley, retail is “the secret sauce” that distinguishes lottery from its digital-first competitors. The sheer scale and ubiquity of retail distribution provide a level of reach that other game categories cannot easily replicate. But that advantage is only meaningful if it is maintained and modernized. “We have an inherently complex product,” he said, pointing to the challenges of selling physical tickets. Simplifying that experience—through better technology, streamlined processes, and improved logistics—is essential to preserving retail’s relevance. At the same time, the definition of retail itself is expanding. Riley pointed to opportunities in new categories, from pharmacies to dollar stores to home improvement chains, as well as the growing role of retailers as digital platforms in their own right. “They are e-tailers,” he noted, suggesting that the line between physical and digital distribution is increasingly blurred. Goldman reinforced the need for flexibility in this expansion, emphasizing that different retail environments require different solutions. “You need to meet retailers expectations and evolve with them,” he said, highlighting the importance of adaptability over uniformity. Pierce reframed the discussion in terms of ecosystems rather than channels. “It’s not one channel versus the other,” he said. “It’s the total ecosystem.” The most effective strategies integrate retail and digital into a seamless holistic experience, allowing players to move between channels without friction. Fisher added that innovations such as shared liquidity between retail and digital games are beginning to unlock new possibilities, creating larger prize pools and more interconnected experiences. These developments suggest that the future is not about choosing between channels, but about orchestrating them in a way that enhances the overall player journey and unlocks a more social dimension to the lottery playing experience. Perhaps the most consequential strategic issue raised, though only briefly, was the relationship between iLottery and iCasino. Fisher’s position was unequivocal: sequence matters. “If a state is going to regulate both, lottery needs to go first,” he said, arguing that early entry allows lottery to establish a digital relationship with players before more aggressive competitors enter the market. The experience in Canada, where some jurisdictions prioritized iCasino, illustrates the risk of getting that sequence wrong. Strong performance in iCasino before iLottery has a chance to connect with the players can be a difficult hurdle to overcome. Strategic timing can have long-term consequences that are difficult to reverse. As the discussion drew to a close, the conversation returned to its original question, but with greater clarity. What does it mean to be a lottery in 2026 and beyond? The answer is not a single strategy or initiative, but a balancing act. Lottery must evolve—faster, more intelligently, and with greater openness to innovation—while preserving the qualities that make it distinct. Those qualities—trust, transparency, legitimacy, public benefit, and the promise of lifechanging outcomes—remain powerful and relevant, but they must be expressed through experiences that meet contemporary expectations for speed, convenience, and engagement. “We can’t forget who we are,” Jones said in closing. “We have a brand identity rooted in values that is our most valuable asset. But we also can’t lose the plot which will always be to engage the players.” That sentiment captures the essence of the challenge. The risk is not that lottery fails to compete, but that in trying to compete, it loses the very attributes that have sustained it. The opportunity, by contrast, is to integrate those attributes into a modern, dynamic, and more expansive model—one that does not retreat from competition, but reframes it on its own terms. n What does it mean to be a “Lottery” in 2026 and beyond? — continued from page 18
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