EUROPEAN STATE LOTTERIES AND TOTO ASSOCIATION

E U R O P E A N S T A T E L O T T E R I E S A N D T O T O A S S O C I A T I O N 

No 28 September 2008

The Executive Committee of 

the European State Lotteries 

and Toto Association 

President 

Dr. Winfried WORTMANN, Managing Director 

WESTDEUTSCHE LOTTERIE GmbH & Co. OHG, Germany 

1st Vice-President 

Mr. Christophe BLANCHARD-DIGNAC, 

President – General Director 

LA FRANÇAISE DES JEUX, France 

2nd Vice-President 

Mr Jussi ISOTALO, Deputy Managing Director 

VEIKKAUS OY, Finland 

MeMBers 

Prof Vesna BAKRAN, General Manager 

HRVATSKA LUTRIJA d.o.o., Croatia 

Mr. Gonzalo FERNÁNDEZ RODRÍGUEZ, General Director 

LOTERÍAS Y APUESTAS DEL ESTADO, Spain 

JUDr. Ales HUSAK, Chairman of the Board of Directors 

and General Director 

SAZKA a.s., Czech Republic 

Mr Léon LOSCH, Director 

LOTERIE NATIONALE, Luxembourg 

Ms Liliana MINCA (GHERVASUC), President, 

General Manager 

COMPANIA NATIONALA “LOTERIA ROMANA” SA, Romania 

Dipl. Ing. Friedrich STICKLER, Deputy General Director 

österreichische Lotterien, Austria 

Ms Dianne THOMPSON, Chief Executive 

The National Lottery CAMELOT, United Kingdom 

Mr Tjeerd VEENSTRA, Director 

De Lotto, Netherlands 

Contents 

1. Message from the President 

3. Editorial 

4. Instant Lotteries 

15. Prof. Virèn 

16. Philippe Vlaemminck EL Legal Adviser 

18. ELISE 

21. Members’ News 

22. Premium Partners 

25. Semi-Premium Partner 

26. Workshops 

General Secretariat 

Bernadette Lobjois 

Secretary General 

Av. de Béthusy 36 

CH-1005 LAUSANNE 

Tel. +41 21 311 30 25 

Fax +41 21 312 30 11 

internet: http://www.european-lotteries.org 

E-mail. info@european-lotteries.org 

NOVEMBER 

• EL/WLA Responsible Gaming 

Seminar 

“The Business Case for 

Responsible Gaming” 

Dates: 

12 – 14 November 2008 

Location: 

Brussels / Belgium 

Host: Loterie Nationale 

• Directors’ Conference 

on Competition Law 

Date: 19 November 2008 

Location: Brussels / Belgium 

Hosted by 

CSR & 

the business case Responsible 

Gaming 

November 12 - 14, 2008 

Brussels/Belgium 

DECEMBER or 

FEBRUARY 2009 at the latest 

• Info Sharing Seminar 

Dates: to be confirmed 

Location: to be confirmed 

Host: to be confirmed 

Registration for all our seminars 

can be done online at 

http://www.european-lotteries.org 

Is traditional advertising dying??? 

Is there any real evidence that new revolutionary ideas have been universally embraced, 

or become universally successful at the expense of the more traditional 

approach to advertising? 

In the age of fragmented advertising, mobile personal connections, volatile consumer 

demands, are the fundamentals of advertising still appropriate or do we 

need not only to continually adjust but to become even more avant-gardistes? 

Do we need radical different approaches? Or, is it, paradoxically, time to be conservative? 

All these questions and more will be addressed in the upcoming joint EL/WLA 

Marketing seminar to be held in London Jan 28-30, 2009. 

You can already register on our Web site www.european-lotteries.org, on which the 

preliminary program of the seminar will be posted in due time. 

As the previous seminars have been attended at full capacity, please register early 

as seats and hotel rooms are limited. 

Also, please note that the participants have the possibility, during their stay, to visit 

the largest international Casino and Gaming Exhibitions ICE and ICEi taking place 

at Earl’s Court, London from January 27 to January 29 2009. 

An excellent opportunity to network. 

THE MATERIAL, VIEWS, OPINIONS AND COMMENTS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHORS, THE SPEAKERS AND THE PANELISTS ARE THEIR 

OWN AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT THE POSITION OF PANORAMA OR EL ASSOCIATION. PANORAMA ACCEPTS NO LIABILITY 

FOR THE ACCURACY OF STATEMENTS MADE BY ADVERTISERS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS MAGAZINE MAY BE REPRO- 

DUCED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM EL GENERAL SECRETARIAT.

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

Dear friends, 

If any evidence was still required to document 

the necessity of EL’s presence on 

site at Brussels, then evidence has been 

supplied in an impressive manner during 

the last months. The discussion about 

the financing and the integrity of sport, 

the debate under the EU Trade Barrier 

Regulation on the blocking of internet 

gambling in the U.S., the new attitude of 

the EU Commission towards the infringement 

procedures, the increasingly organized, 

joint preparation for the discussions 

within the Council and with the Commission, 

all these matters have been accompanied 

very closely by our representation 

in Brussels. The organization of games of 

chance in the EU is no longer a question 

which is discussed merely within the Directorate-General 

“Internal Market and 

Services”. The direct and indirect effects 

on the sport, on the social institutions, on 

the prevention of money laundering and 

fraud are now concerns for Directorates- 

General. We as European Lotteries have 

substantially contributed to this. 

We have succeeded more clearly than 

before in illustrating that and why staterun 

gambling operators are different 

from commercial operators. This “we are 

different” had mostly been regarded as 

thesis. We are now able to prove that and 

why we are different. 

This discussion had started with the keyword 

“integrity of sport”. In nearly all 

kinds of sports, especially soccer, it becomes 

more and more obvious that the 

typology of the betting offers does not 

only exert considerable influence on the 

behaviour of the betters, but involves severe 

dangers for the reputation and the 

integrity of the sport and the athletes. 

Message from the President 

The risk potential of certain live bets cannot 

and must not be toned-down. The big 

sports organisations took up the matter. 

With our sports betting monitoring programme, 

with the Matchinfo activities, 

the herein committed EL Members make 

an important contribution under the umbrella 

of EL. The decisions of the General 

Assembly in Cyprus give us the mandate 

and the creative power for further development. 

It is absolutely essential. 

Not only in Europe, but also worldwide is 

responsible gaming a commitment which 

has concrete, observable consequences. 

This must be valid particularly in Europe, 

where the legal debates on the organisation 

of the gambling sector are carried out 

as virulently as on no other continent. 

In this context, we always talk as well 

about facts and figures. That the figures 

are speaking in our favour is not a question 

of belief but a provable fact. It is 

therefore a matter of great importance 

that we as European Association are able 

to deliver quickly reliable data to the European 

institutions for their work. If it is 

not us, who else could be able to provide 

information about the gambling sector, 

where so many misunderstandings subsist? 

For this reason, in this Panorama 

edition I would like to recommend warmly 

the ELISE report to you. And I want to 

emphasize once again how important it is 

that the basic factors are collected by us 

– not to gain an advantage in the competition, 

but to supply the responsible persons 

in our countries with the orientation 

data for their decisions. 

Even if our General Assembly at Limassol 

could only be short, it has taken important 

decisions which are pointing the way 

and has thereby taken up aspects which 

had been prepared during the “Industry 

1 

P AN RAMA 

Days” Conference. At this point, I would 

like to cordially thank once again our 

industrial partners as well as our host, 

the Cyprus Government Lottery, in the 

name of all participants. Now we have to 

make the best of the next months to set 

the course for the congress at Istanbul in 

June 2009. 

The concept of two EL locations, Brussels 

and Lausanne, has proved to be 

worthwhile. To communicate better than 

ever before the results of our actions to 

our Members remains the challenge that 

we will rise to for the future. 

Cordially yours 

Winfried Wortmann 

President

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P AN RAMA 

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Editorial 

The evolution of scratch off games 

and a taste of our next seminars 

Scratch cards have been a very popular 

form of games, mainly because they 

present an opportunity to win instantly 

with a low initial investment. Since its 

advent, the scratch off ticket has taken 

many forms, included many different 

prize structures and a variety of versions 

– the latest being online scratchies. There 

also is a trend in some countries towards 

more expensive scratch tickets that offer 

high jackpots. 

The history of instant scratch games is 

relatively modern, making its first appearance 

in 1974 in the US, with a game 

launched by the Massachusetts State 

Lottery. In 1978, there was another first 

for instant games, when the Loterie Romande 

of Switzerland introduced the 

first scratch off ticket in Europe. Since 

then, instant games have been consistently 

well received by players and in the 

seventies, eighties and early nineties; 

most European Lotteries have opted for 

this novel form of playing. We are pleased 

to present you in this issue of Panorama 

an evaluation, made by various Lotteries, 

of their experiences with this game and 

the different approaches taken to keep a 

high level of interest in that game. 

2008 has been a very busy year for our 

seminars and will continue to be until 

December. We are proud to report that 

our meetings are getting more and more 

attention, so don’t forget the next seminar 

on Responsible Gaming, which we 

organize in partnership with WLA and 

that promises to be highly informative. 

Definitely this year, the palm goes to 

ELU (European Lottery University) that 

has beat all records with 48 attendees 

coming from all over, including Canada 

and Africa. We are already gearing up 

for 2009 and the first seminar will tackle 

traditional approach versus avant-garde 

3 

P AN RAMA 

campaigns in the Communication and 

Advertising field. This joint WLA/EL Marketing 

reunion will take place as usual in 

London, and participants will have an opportunity 

to visit ICE, the largest International 

Casino & Gaming Exhibitions. 

All information are available in due 

time in our website, in order to allow 

you to book in advance your travel 

schedule. 

I would like to remind our Members that 

we are now working on our new 2007 

report ELISE, which will be finalized in 

November. Also, a seminar on Info Sharing 

is being worked out and further detailed 

information will be sent later. If any 

Lottery is willing to organize this event, 

please contact the Secretariat General. 

I hope you will enjoy this issue and I look 

forward to seeing you at our next seminar. 

Bernadette Lobjois 

Secretary General

4 

A world of creativity 

with scratch-off tickets 

Scratch-off games are fast-action 

products that reward players with instant 

win. Although instant lotteries are not 

very old, going back only to the seventies 

and eighties – Switzerland’s “Loterie 

de la Suisse Romande” being the very 

first organization in Europe to launch 

a scratch-off game, this product has 

slowly gained a dynamic position in any 

Lottery’s offerings. As the instant game’s 

popularity increased across Europe, the 

need for more creative designs, exciting 

play themes, larger prizes and payouts 

became apparent. In some countries, 

the presentation of instant games as part 

of TV shows resulted in huge success, 

as the example of “Le Millionnaire” in 

France can attest. Nevertheless, such a 

phenomenon did not necessarily repeat 

in other European countries, and by 

the 1990s, certain instant lotteries even 

experienced an important drop. 

Therefore, Lottery organizations decided 

to rethink their instant game approach 

and since then, scratch-off tickets have 

occupied an important share of the 

European lottery market. To insure 

regular success, Lotteries have evaluated 

and implemented a slew of variants for 

their instant games – some on a regular 

basis, others on occasion: Adding more 

play areas on scratch-off tickets, allowing 

a larger variety of prizes from important 

jackpots to a multitude of low-tier prizes 

and as a more recent introduction, higherprice 

point for these tickets. 

We have asked some of our members 

to give us a general idea of the instant 

market in their country, emphasizing 

the differences between low-price point 

tickets versus higher-price tickets. 

The Austrian Lotteries launched their 

first instant game in 1995 and since then, 

they have been providing their players 

with 12 to 13 different scratch-off tickets 

in the price range of €1.50 to €5.00. In 2000 

and 2001, the Lotteries experimented 

with higher priced tickets of €7.00 and 

€6.50 and €7.50 in subsequent years until 

2006. This was only a partial success with 

the consumers, so the Austrian Lotteries 

did not repeat this price point. 

In Croatia, the first instant game was 

launched in 1987 and the scratch-off 

offering remains at a low-price point. 

P AN RAMA 

Instant Lotteries 

The increase of the price of the instant 

ticket is done slowly because the Lottery 

does not think the Croatian market has a 

demand yet for high price tickets. 

The Baden-Württemberg Lottery in 

Germany does not offer scratch-off games 

at a high-price point at the moment. The 

highest ticket cost is e2.00 which is very 

successful, along with their other instant 

games priced at e1.00. In 1999 and 2000, 

the highest price ever set for scratched 

tickets was DM 5. 

In the next few pages, we are presenting 

the very interesting comments of 

some Lotteries on instant games, play 

formula and payout structures and 

price points: La Française des Jeux/ 

France and Lottomatica/Italy talk about 

experiences with high-price tickets up 

to e10; Veikkaus/Finland has presented 

some years much higher priced scratchoff; 

Szerencsejáték Zrt /Hungary and 

the Loterija Slovenije / Slovenia prefer 

to tailor their instant games to their 

market’s preferences rather than ticket 

price, while Swisslos/Switzerland has had 

a long standing with high-price lottery 

games. All these presentations are full 

of practical evaluations and could be 

excellent references on the diversity of 

scratch-off games.


Italy 

We started managing instant tickets in 

2004. We first offered low price tickets: 

in 2005 we had just 1,00 – 2,00 and 3,00 

euros games. In the following years we’ve 

started a strong product innovation process: 

in 2007 only, our scratch-off game mix 

was three 1,00 euro games, seven 2,00 euros 

games, four 3,00 euros games, two 5,00 

euros game and one 10,00 euros game. In 

2008, we have launched on the market two 

2,00 euros games, one 3,00 euros game and 

one 1,00 euros game. In January 2007, we 

decided to enter a different price category 

for instant lotteries and we launched the 

first high price-point ticket of 10e “Mega 

Miliardario”. After almost one year, in February 

2008 we launched the second 10e 

scratch-off ticket: “Colpo Vincente”. 

These latest tickets are targeted to a different 

customer segment and they are 

developed on different themes which are 

relevant to the target. One of these games, 

“Mega Miliardario” is a key number match 

game based on a money theme, the other 

one “Colpo Vincente” is a multi-game (2 

games) based on a gambling theme. First 

of its kind, the high cost “Mega Miliardario” 

has performed very well, selling over 730 

millions euros during the first 3 months of 

sales (35% of the total sales). 

Before presenting these games to players, 

we conducted several market researches 

focused on the product and on the specific 

target. In order to match customer 

expectations on such high price point, we 

developed innovative product features: we 

introduced the highest jackpot (1 million 

Performance of scratch-off is key 

Euros) in the history of instant tickets in 

Italy, along with a huge number of lower 

prizes. Also, the payout percentage of the 

first 10,00 euros game is 75%, while the 

average payout of the rest of the games is 

around 65%. 

Although we have had great success with 

these 10,00 euros games, this is as far as 

we are willing to go for 2008: we do not 

think today our market is ready for games 

in an even higher price point but we are 

thoroughly studying and testing product 

solutions which would be potentially accepted 

by our customers even at higher 

price points. As a matter of fact, our lowprice 

tickets are doing really good and we 

are going to continue presenting more low 

and mid-price scratch-off games. Our market 

researches show that the typical player, 

interested in these high price-point games 

are mainly males (72%), in the 25-54 years 

category (74%). They also play other games 

(mainly betting and slot machines). More 

than half of them (54%) live in the south 

of Italy. They have a higher level of education 

than the players of lower price points. 

Therefore, we think these players will most 

likely be loyal - a fact that is confirmed by 

our Customer Satisfaction Surveys which 

are telling us that they are very happy with 

this kind of games, because of their high 

level of suspense and high payout. 

Due to the fact that we only offer 2 games 

in the high price point range, we do not 

expect losing large number of players who 

5 

P AN RAMA 

otherwise would not be able to afford these 

high-price games. We have on the market 

18 games in the lower price-point range, so 

players have wide choice when it comes to 

their level of spending. 

In order to keep the whole experience a 

safe enjoyment, we have meticulously designed 

these tickets, their prize structure 

and their payout to avoid any excessive 

gambling. Also we are considering having a 

limited edition of high price points in order 

to reduce the product availability on the 

shelf. Finally, we are preparing a special 

information campaign to discourage excessive 

gambling (part of our corporate social 

responsibility program) and we have introduced 

a dedicated text message on back of 

all our new tickets. 

Since we started to manage instant lotteries, 

we have come to realize that this market 

needs continuous innovation. So even if 

we build our products to satisfy our players’ 

needs as longer as possible, we periodically 

introduce new tickets to offer to our customer 

as much amusement as possible (on 

the other side, we eliminate the less performing 

tickets). Middle price points tickets 

(2-3 euros) need a new launch every 2- 

4 months, higher price points (5-10 euros) 

need a new launch once a year. 

To introduce even more variety in our game 

mix, we are currently evaluating new formulas 

like “win for life” prizes and combined 

games (instants and deferred lotteries).

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6 

P AN RAMA


Finland 

Veikkaus has a total of seven instants 

in the low and regular price categories. 

They cost e1, e2, e3, e3.50, e4.50 and 

e5. Next to that line of instant games, 

Veikkaus decided to experiment with 

scratch-off tickets in the higher-price 

range between 1985 and 1988. The 

Double Instant game, launched between 

2 Sept 1985 and 30 Aug 1986, provided 

instant cash prizes under the scratch surface, 

together with weekly draws and a 

jackpot of FIM 1 million (e168 188, corresponding 

to e285 247 at present-day 

rate). The price of an individual ticket 

was FIM 50=e8.41 (e14.26 at presentday 

rate). The Mother’s Day Instant and 

the Olympic Instant (different tickets for 

the winter and summer games) were on 

sale between 20 Apr 1987 and 9 Oct 1988, 

each of them being seasonal instants. 

They cost FIM 50 per ticket (=e8.41; 

e13.77 at present-day rate). 

After these experiments, Veikkaus 

only introduced a more expensive instant 

game for Christmas 2007. It was 

launched as an alternative to the original 

Christmas Instant that costs 5 Euros and 

had become a popular scratch-off game 

for Finns since 1995. The 2007 Christmas 

Calendar Instant cost e10. 

The 2007 Christmas Instant, which belonged 

to the higher-price category of 

e10, did not fulfil our expectations, 

since the tickets printing was done too 

late in the season and didn’t allow us to 

Veikkaus Oy / Finland: 

Different price categories for scratch-off tickets 

apply foil on them. Also, the timing of the 

weekly additional draw and the related 

main draw proved us wrong. We should 

have had the main draw only after Christmas. 

“The additional draws were strongly affected 

by the fact that they were made 

public in pre-recorded TV shows,” says 

Veikkaus Product Manager for Instant 

Games, Riitta Mesilaakso-Lehtola.“ 

We have now learnt from our experience, 

and this year we will schedule the draws 

differently,” she says. “The high price did 

not seem to be an obstacle to buying for 

most of the players. Instead, the problem 

was that the tickets were hard to distinguish 

from the other instants because 

there was no foil printing on them. It was 

the intended different print design that 

was meant to attract people’s interest,” 

continues Riitta Mesilaakso-Lehtola. 

The prize distribution in the Christmas 

Instant focuses on small prizes, in order 

to allow as many people as possible, who 

have purchased a ticket or received one 

as a gift, to gain something and have a 

chance to experience the joy of winning. 

The jackpot of the additional draw 

was and will be fairly large, e100 000. 

Veikkaus applies its largest prize payout 

percentage – 60 percent – to the Christmas 

Instant game. With the rest of the 

tickets, the payout percentage varies between 

45 and 60 percent. 

7 

P AN RAMA 

”Veikkaus is not planning to eliminate its 

inexpensive line of instant tickets. On 

the contrary, as time seems to be getting 

tougher in the economic sense and 

consumers are becoming more and more 

careful with their spending, we still need 

to offer tickets that don’t cost much,” 

analyses Mesilaakso-Lehtola. 

Veikkaus will launch another 10 Euros 

Christmas Calendar Instant for Christmas 

2008. The Christmas Instant is a seasonal 

ticket and is sold only before Christmas. 

The game is based on the traditional advent 

calendar, known to everyone, which 

makes it easy for the consumers to play.

Hungary 

8 

Scratch-off in Hungary 

We have had instant ticket games in Hungary 

since 1992. There are now 13 types 

of instant tickets on our instant game 

market. All of them are scratch cards. 

The games are sold for 150-200-300 and 

500 HUF (from e0,6 to e2). Depending 

on the prize, the tickets can show 1-2- 

3 or 5 game areas on a ticket. We have 

three core games: Black Jack (150 HUF 

= e0,6), Astro (200HUF = e0,8) and 

Fáraók kincse (200HUF = e0,8). In addition, 

we are issuing yearly 5 to 6 new 

instant games. The novelties usually appear 

every 2 months. 

At the moment, our single, higher-priced 

ticket of 500 HUF (2e) is the Szuper 

Bankó, which has been on sale since December 

2007. In terms of number of tickets 

sold, the Szuper Bankó game has been 

even more successful than the 300 HUF 

instant ticket games. As it is the only 500 

HUF ticket on the market, it generates 

25% of the whole instant revenue. For 

500 HUF, you can find 5 different games 

on the ticket. Players like that possibility 

of 5 games that give them a chance to win 

up to 5 times. The way they see the game 

is that 1 game costs just 100 HUF. The 

jackpot (25 million HUF = e100 000) 

and the high number of middle prizes are 

also a great motivation. 

P AN RAMA 


During the period of 2007-08, we have 

had one 500 HUF (2e), and 2 different 

300 HUF (1,2e) tickets in the higher 

price point segment. They already offer 

more play areas for the players, but in 

exchange for the bigger investment, players 

of the high price segment also receive 

higher top prizes. The 500 HUF Szuper 

Bankó gives players more incentive to 

play with its 25 million HUF (100 000e) 

top prize. We also provide the players 

of the higher price segment games with 

higher prize payout. In the case of the 

300 HUF tickets, the payout percentage 

is 62%. For the Szuper Bankó, it is 65%. 

Also, the more expensive the game, the 

more play areas can be found on the tickets. 

To distinguish these games from the 

other game mix, the size of the higherpriced 

ticket is larger than the others, and 

also it is the only ticket printed on foil. 

Are there any thoughts about launching 

instant games costing even more? 

For the present, we consider 500 HUF 

(e2) as the top price point, and we are 

planning to launch another game in this


price category. Currently in the Hungarian 

instant market, 500 HUF seems to be 

the maximum that the players are willing 

to pay in the hope of winning. Our top 

price point (500 HUF) is far from being 

exceptionally high, as it is confirmed by 

market researches from other countries 

in Europe and elsewhere. Eventually, 

in the oncoming years, a new ’top high’ 

(1000 HUF – 4e) category may appear 

in Hungary. 

Are some low cost instant tickets going 

to disappear? Our 150 HUF tickets are 

going to be eliminated starting in January 

2009 and we are going to raise the price 

of our top core game, Black Jack from 

150 HUF to 200 HUF. Before launching 

such games, we have conducted some 

research to know what the public would 

have to say about these new prices. Market 

research results show that 200 HUF 

as the lowest ticket price point will not 

scare off our players from the games. We 

may lose some players in the short term, 

but with our new captivating instant tickets 

and continuous innovations, we will 

try to compensate that loss. 

9 

P AN RAMA 

The future of your instant scratch-off 

games: In November 2008, we plan to 

launch “World Poker Tour”, which will 

be the first licensed game in Hungary. 

With this scratch card, players will be 

able to apply for a second chance draw 

where they can win exclusive poker merchandises 

over the usual money win. We 

are excited about the launch of a Poker 

ticket that should be well received, as in 

the last 1 or 2 years, the game seems to 

have gained significant popularity. As we 

hope, this themed instant game will attract 

a new target player base. The price 

of this ticket will be 300 HUF (1,2e). 

Also, as we have done with every game, 

we will make sure our constant communication 

efforts remain focused on preventing 

excessive gambling and juvenile 

play.

Instant games were first launched in 

France in 1984. For more than 20 years, 

our scratch-off game business boomed 

without any high price point launch. It 

even reached record sales of 3.4 billion e 

in 2000 with only low and mid-price products. 

It is only in September 2005 that we finally 

launched a high price ticket: The product 

is named 7Extra, it is a 10e ticket presented 

in a cardboard pack package. 

The original theme was about money, but 

it has been relaunched twice since 2005 

with other themes: once in 2006 (casino 

theme) and once in 2007 (7 wonders of 

the world theme). This game has remained 

alone in this high price point segment and 

no additional product has been launched 

since then. Sales are still low compared 

to the results registered by the rest of the 

game mix: 7% of total instant game sales. 

The Concept : 

The Name of the product is 7Extra 

(meaning in French : that’s great!). 

The ticket consists of 7 scratch off 

games + one bonus game presented in 

detachable strips and sold in a cardboard 

pack. Due to its larger size, the ticket is 

10 

Scratch-off, another path to success 

highly visible on the shelves. Another interest 

is that the theme is renewed every 

year. 

Benefits for the Consumer: 

The game offers an opportunity to win a 

high prize: 100000e (ranks N°2 behind 

Millionnaire’s 1Me). It presents another 

opportunity to maximize overall winning 

odds with a rich scratch-off experience: 

1. 7 different games, 

2. Among them, 3 games with a perceived 

value of 1e, 3 with a perceived 

value of 2e and 1 with a perceived 

value of 3e, 

3. Every pack offers a minimum of 3e. 

P AN RAMA 


7Extra has been quite successful in 2005 

and 2006, but sales have now stabilized 

around 250Me: 

Years 

300 

250 

200 

150 

100 

50 

0 

7Extra: Turnover and market share 

2005 2006 2007 

CA 7Extra 

Market share 

8,00% 

7,00% 

6,00% 

5,00% 

4,00% 

3,00% 

2,00% 

1,00% 

0,00% 

Above: Sales in Me/ % of FDJ scractchoff 

game sales 

70% of sales have been additional to the 

range and cannibalization has remained 

low. 

This novelty was quite an experience. 

The launch of this game was essentially 

a technological challenge: 

• Because we wanted a printed cardboard 

pack and not a blister pack (in 

order to get a more premium look), 

the manufacturing process required a 

specific printing machine. 

• Due to the fact that the product was 

made of 7 different scratch-off games 

+ 1 bonus game, each with their own 

prize structure that should suitably 

combine to make the overall expected 

prize structure, the printer was 

obliged to develop a new programming 

technology. 

• Because only 1 “master” game (out of 

the 8) bore logistics and financial data 

and should be activated while still in 

the pack, a window needed to be created 

on the pack... which required a 

new cutting technique. 

• Because each of the 8 games could 

be paid separately and did not bear 

all data, each of them needed to be 

linked to the “master” game, which 

required to adapt programming. 

In order to explain this new concept to 

consumers, the launch has been strongly 

advertised through TV and POS materials.


Overall, 7Extra consumer base remains 

small and quite specific. 

The acceptance of such high price point 

tickets is based on several factors. With a 

high price point, players expect: 

• A game with better odds, 

• More scratch-off zones and games 

than what is offered on 3-5e tickets, 

• A high top prize, 

• Obviously lots of intermediate prizes 

(between 30e and 200e), which provide 

an attractive return on investment. 

Since the top prize for 5e tickets (with 5 

games inside) was already 50 000e, we 

decided to opt for a 100 000e top prize 

for the 10e 7Extra ticket. It ranks n°2 

within the gaming range (behind Millionnaire 

top prize of 1Me). 

The payout is another important factor. 

For 7Extra, we are offering a payout percentage 

of 70% and it’s among our largest 

payouts of our game mix: 

1e games: 62.5% or 63% 

2e games: between 60% and 66% 

3e games: between 68% and 70% 

5e games: between 68% and 75%. 

7EXTRA Sept. 13th, 2007 edition 

750 000 printed tickets 

overall odds : 1 out of 4 

No. of prizes Prizes Total 

1 100 000 e 100 000 e 

9 1 000 e 9 000 e 

500 100 e 50 000 e 

4 500 50 e 225 000 e 

10 000 30 e 300 000 e 

27 400 20 e 548 000 e 

51 920 15 e 778 800 e 

93 170 10 e 931 700 e 

310 000 5 e 1 550 000 e 

252 500 3 e 757 500 e 

750 000 5 250 000e 

TRJ 70,00% 

Since we launched our latest sport event 

game (5e Pékin 2008) with a 75% payout 

percentage, we plan to relaunch 7Extra 

soon, increasing the product payout 

to 75%. We are also considering launching 

tickets in 2009 or 2010 in the 20e or 

more price range, but we will first further 

enrich our 5-10e range. 

Beside 7Extra, la Française des Jeux 

runs a promotional operation for Christmas 

and New Year that consists of a gift 

pack filled with tickets sold at a price 

point of 20e. 

This promotional activity started in 1994 

and is now a major consumer rendezvous. 

It consists of 4 different gift packs, each 

of them filled with FDJ standard tickets 

whose cumulative value equals 20e. The 

selling period extends from early December 

to mid January. 

These offers of gift packs have been renewed 

regularly: 

1992-1996: Classical gift packs 

1997: Pop-up gift packs 

1998: Musical gift packs 

1999: Calendar gift packs 

2000-2002: Musical gift packs 

2003-2005: Glossy gift packs 

2006: Zip gift packs 

2007: Zip gift packs (with hologram) 

They are always strongly advertised 

through TV, radio, Internet and POS material. 

Since a lot of them are offered to 

non-consumers, they are one of the best 

means to recruit new consumers for this 

category. 

Example of 2007 gift pack: 

11 

P AN RAMA 

POS material avertising 2007 gift packs: 

This operation is a true consumer success 

and boosts scratch-off game sales by 

25-30% compared to an average week. 

Overall, additional sales account for 2% 

of yearly total sales. 

Though a promotional event, gift packs 

now tend to be considered as a product 

in itself by consumers. 

Additional sales generated by gift packs 

N.B. : 2001 results have been badly 

impacted by the change of currency 

(switch to euro).

120 M 

100 M 

80 M 

60 M 

40 M 

20 M 

0 M 

+ 73,1 M 

+ 25,3% 

+ 77,7 M 

+ 30,5 M 

+ 24,1% 

Passage 

l’ 

+ 9,4% 

+ 79,5 M 

+ 79,3 M 

Focus of our marketing activity 

1e 2e 3e 5e 10e 

2007 Numero Sudoku: new 1,2,3 Adjugé: Tous derrière 7Extra: 

Fétiche: product launch auction theme le XV de France: casino 

relaunch St Valentin: game sport event game theme 

calendar game (rugby) relaunch 

Jan.- Millionnaire: St Valentin: Pékin 2008: 7Extra: 

June relaunch calendar game sport event game 7 wonders of the 

2008 Totemia : travel (Olympics) world theme 

theme game relaunch 

Enquête: police 

investigation theme 

game 

Our range for the 2007-08 period: 

1e 2e 3e 5e 10e 

Jan. Goal Millionnaire Vegas Tous derrière 7Extra: 

2007- Banco Astro Tac O Tac le XV de France: 7 wonders 

June Morpion Black Jack 1,2,3 Adjugé Pékin 2008 of the world 

2008 Numero Solitaire Totemia (Olympics) 

range Fétiche Dédé 

Super Bingo 

XIII 

Sudoku 

Scrabble 

St Valentin 

Enquête 

Number 4 11 4 2 1 

of 

products 

+ 25,8% 

12 

+ 89,8 M 

+ 87,6 M 

P AN RAMA 

+ 82,9 M 

+ 74,1 M 

1999 2000 2001 2002* 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 

Additional sales in Million uros 

% of sales increase vs annual average week 

Providing games at a high price point will 

certainly not eliminate our offering of lower 

cost instant tickets. French players are 

still very much interested in cheap, accessible 

tickets, which sometimes are their 

exclusive purchase. 

+ 25,2% 

Scratch-off, another path to success 

+ 28,7% + 28,4% + 28,5% 

However, in 2007 and 2008, our marketing activity has been mainly focused on widening 

and renovating our mid-price offer, and not the high price segment: 

+ 25,1% 

Besides, before launching a new game 

format, we always consider any risk that 

could create a discriminatory environment 

against low-cost ticket consumers 

who would no longer afford buying lottery 

tickets. As a state-owned company, this is 

50% 

45% 

40% 

35% 

30% 

25% 

20% 

15% 

10% 

5% 

0% 


not a risk we can take. Also, eliminating 

low-price tier games would not be affordable: 

There would be probably a risk of losing 

consumers if we were to eliminate low 

price tickets to exclusively concentrate on 

a high price range. 

The cheaper segment (1e tickets) 

plays an important role in recruiting new 

consumers. 

The 2e segment is totally key since it 

still accounts for the major part of our 

business (58% of sales in 2006 and 55% 

in 2007). 

We are consolidating the 3 and 5e segments 

by switching some of the products 

from 2 to 3e (St Valentin for example) 

and launching new 5e references. 

With a high price ticket such as 7Extra, we 

attract few consumers. Penetration is low: 

6% versus 51% for total scratch-off game 

range. 

Consumers are regular players : 

• who also buy 1, 2 and 3e tickets (70% 

of them), 

• who spend more than the average consumer: 

6,7e per week versus 3,3e, 

• who also buy more different tickets 

than the average consumer: 10,7 versus 

4,9 each year. 

We do not consider that high price tickets 

create a specific problem. However, it is 

our duty to promote responsible behaviour 

towards gaming whenever it is possible. 

This is why we always mention our 

“restez maîtres du jeu” (stay in charge) 

claim on any print communication (tickets, 

POS material, website...) and we always 

make sure our commercials comply 

with our advertising policy. 

Always looking at launching higher 

priced tickets is not our strategy. Overall, 

we think we need to balance winning 

odds and attractive jackpots to maximize 

growth. While we are planning to launch 

other high price tickets (some with much 

higher top prize than current 7Extra), we 

are also launching mid-price tickets with 

very high winning odds (one ticket with 

winning odds of 1 out 2 for example). 

The objective is to answer different consumer 

needs and profiles.


Slovenia 

Our oldest instant game is called Ekspres 

Loterija and was launched in 

1971. In 1993, we added a new instant 

game called HIP Loterija. In 1997, it was 

IZREDNA Sreka and in 2004, the KVIZ 

Srečka game. 

Today we are selling all four categories 

of instant games. Each category has different 

parameters (price, percentage 

payout, prize-structure and Jackpot, play 

style). Every year, we launch from 2 to 

6 different games in each category, for 

a total of 10 to 12 different games. One 

instant game stays usually on the market 

from 3 to 6 months and there are at least 

6 different games on the market at the 

same time. 

In the Slovenian market, every game that 

has a price tag of more than 3,00 e is considered 

a high price ticket. We launched 

the first high-price instant ticket for 5,00 

e in the end of the year 2007 in the category 

of IZREDNA Srečka. The game was 

printed in smaller edition and designed 

as a New Year’s card. The size of the ticket 

was at least twice as big as the normal 

ticket. The player had to scratch 12 fields 

representing the months of the year and 

he had to match at least 3 bells to win a 

prize. The more bells he matched, the 

bigger was the prize. The payout rate 

was 80% and the highest prize 30.000,00 

e. This was the only high-price ticket in 

Slovenian market. 

Scratch-off tailored to Slovenian preferences 

In 2007 we have been offering 12 different 

games. The most successful game is 

Izredna srečka, which is also the most 

expensive among all instant games but 

has the most attractive prizes and payout 

percentage. Our players prefer simple 

tickets with non-complicated play style 

(like discovering the prizes). Games are 

designed with different themes. The 

most successful theme in the last two 

years has been casino-style games. Since 

2003, we have been also offering the socalled 

New Year’s ticket, with very good 

sale results. The game is more expensive 

than an ordinary game in the category of 

Izredna srečka and has a higher percentage 

payout (up to 80%). 

Category First launch in Price Payout percentage 

EKSPRES Loterija 1971 0,50 e 50,00% - 60,00 % 

HIP Loterija 1993 1,50 e 60% 

IZREDNA Srečka 1997 2,00 e - 3,00 e 70,00% - 80,00% 

KVIZ Srečka 2004 1,00 e 60% 

13 

P AN RAMA 

The sales figure of the 5,00 e game was 

below our expectations. We believe that 

the main reason was the price because 

our players are not used to pay more 

than 3,00 e for a ticket. We improved our 

returns by introducing a marketing approach, 

which allows a player to receive 

a present for buying two or more tickets. 

We specifically designed this game to 

make sure it would get the best acceptance 

from the public. The game had 

one large Jackpot and a lot of lower-tier 

prizes. The lowest prize was equivalent 

to the price of the ticket. The payout 

percentage was 80% and almost 65% of 

the tickets won a prize. The payout percentage 

was higher than the payout percentage 

in other instant tickets and at 

the same level as in some extraordinary 

games (such as the New Year’s tickets) in 

the segment of Izredna srečka. 

We do not plan to launch instant games 

costing more than 5,00 e at the present 

time. According to our market research 

and survey, our players are not prepared 

to pay more than 5,00 e for a lottery 

ticket even if the Jackpot would be more 

attractive. We’ll continue with the existing 

strategy – offering four categories of 

instant games with different parameters 

(price, percentage payout, prize-structure, 

Jackpot and play styles).

Switzerland 

Switzerland has a long tradition of high 

price point tickets: The first lottery ticket 

was sold in 1937 at a price point of CHF 

5.--. One could consider this to be a super 

high price point. 

The first instant game was launched in 

1975 at a price point of CHF 5.--. The 

already existing passive tear-open ticket 

lottery was simply transformed into a 

pre-drawn tear-open ticket. 

In the early 90ies the price of the above 

ticket was risen to CHF 10.--. A very successful 

game called “Benissimo”, this 

ticket is still no. 1 in sales in our jurisdiction. 

For Swisslos, the high price point is not a 

new price segment as our variety of current 

games can attest: 

CHF 10.-- Benissimo (a tear-open ticket 

with a draw on a TV-Show) 

CHF 15.-- Piratenschatz (two multigame 

tickets in one pouch) 

CHF 20.-- 6-Pack (6 tickets in one 

pouch) 

CHF 100.-- Millionenlos (a multi-game 

ticket with a draw on a TV- 

Show, and a ticket presented 

at the end of the year which 

was introduced in 1999). 

14 

An experience with high price instant tickets 

Besides the high price segment, we offer 

games at the lower price points: 

P AN RAMA 

CHF 1.-- 1 ticket 

CHF 2.-- 2 tickets 








Looking at all of our products, the most 

successful scratch-off game we have 

launched – game with remarkable results, 

is “Millionenlos” (in the price point 

of CHF 100.-) 

(CHF 1.- = EUR 0,62 approx.) 

Instant Lotteries

Prof. Viren 

Prof. Matti Viren 

University of Turku, Department of 

Economics, Finland. 

Gaming markets are changing rapidly. 

This change manifests itself in institutions, 

the nature of games and in the volume 

and pricing of gaming. Formally, the 

institutional set-up has not changed very 

much during the past ten years. However, 

under the surface a great deal has 

happened. The most important engine of 

change, of course, has been the internet, 

which has enabled cross-border gambling 

in an unprecedented scale. 

Although we do not know the volume of 

cross-border sale exactly, we can use the 

estimates of a recent survey conducted 

across European Lotteries 2 . According to 

this survey, cross-border sales constitute 

an average of 7.4 percent of the gaming 

companies’ total sales. It is not a strikingly 

big figure but when we look at the individual 

games, we are faced with certain very 

high percentages. For example, while 

cross-border sales in lotto are around 

one percent, their share in sports betting 

amounts to up to 39 percent. From the 

point of view of existing companies andgovernments, 

the situation is alarming 

already because it entails major losses of 

revenue. Governments are also concerned 

about tax revenue: private bookmakers do 

not pay taxes on their cross-border sales, 

which, in turn, is detrimental to the governments’ 

fiscal position. 

Whatever will happen, it is clear that we 

are moving towards more competitive 

markets and prices will fall (accordingly, 

the prizes and the payout ratios will in- 

Gaming in the new market environment: 

what do we know about the consequences 

of the changes? 1 

crease).Thus, while the average payout 

ratio of the European companies is now 

at 53.3 percent as compared to 48.5 percent 

ten years ago, all companies expect 

it to increase substantially in the next 

ten years. According to the current European 

state lotteries, if all restrictions 

were abolished, the payout ratios could 

reach 70 percent. This would obviously 

increase the volume of sales. Using the 

lotteries’ subjective estimates as a benchmark, 

we could say that such a change 

in the payout ratios would increase the 

overall demand by almost one third. 

Quite clearly, such changes would show 

in all indicators: expenditures, production, 

employment, advertising and, maybe 

most importantly, problem gambling. 

It is certainly worth trying to analyze the 

nature and magnitude of these effects in 

more detail. It is not easy and we cannot 

always arrive at unambiguous results; 

yet some results are quite obvious. Very 

briefly, we could state: 

• Gambling is good; its overall effect on 

welfare is clearly positive. Hence, there 

is no need to prohibit gambling altogether, 

nor should reasonable growth of the 

gambling sector be prevented. 

• The demand for gambling is relatively 

sensitive to prizes – yet not only to average 

prizes but rather to the whole distribution 

of prizes. With “better” prize 

schemes – and with “better” games 

gambling will increase even if the average 

price level and household income 

did not change. 

• From the point of view of problem gambling, 

the biggest threat may not come 

from the sole expansion of gambling but 

from the change in the nature gambling 

to more intensive activities with higher 

frequency. 

• We should be worried about the market 

structure in the gambling industry because 

the gaming sector is not a prototype 

of free competition: in fact, by abolishing 

a public monopoly we may get a 

private monopoly instead. 

• The fiscal issues are quite complex 

because they concern the role of the 

governments and the measures which 

governments can take in order to secure 

their fiscal needs and protect consumers 

without jeopardizing free entrepreneur- 

15 

P AN RAMA 

ship and free competition. The fact that 

gambling generates large revenues does 

not constitute a justification for government 

intervention as such. 

• There are numerous public policy issues 

which have not been properly considered 

yet. They include both crime and 

misuse and the need for regulation and 

control. The public policy concerns also 

cover lobbying and interplay between 

various suppliers and beneficiaries of 

gaming revenues. All interest groups 

and organizations claim that they are 

just trying to improve consumer welfare, 

although even the opposite might 

be true. 

Quite often, the alternatives are presented 

as choices between black and white. 

But gaming is not that simple. Take, for 

instance, problem gambling. One may argue 

that, thus far, problem gambling has 

been well under control, and that it only 

represents a problem for a small minority, 

say one percent of the adult population, 

which appears a typical estimate 

in most jurisdictions. But we have to be 

careful in quantifying the significance 

of problem gambling. Small numbers of 

participation may not necessarily mean 

small economic impact. Moreover, the 

historical record of controlling problem 

gambling does not automatically translate 

to similar performance with different 

settings of games and gaming volumes. 

The implication of all this is quite simple: 

before we make affirmative conclusions 

we had better find out how things are. And 

that means simply more fact-finding, more 

analysis, and more research. 

In several speeches I did mention that 

since 1994 until 2007 the European Court 

of Justice did rule in 14 preliminary cases 

on gambling services. In 2008 the same 

European Court has already received 14 

new preliminary referrals. As such this 

proves that the legal disputes surrounding 

gambling in the EU are creating the need 

for regulatory solutions. 

1 This article is based on a new book “Gaming 

in the New Market Environment” (Matti 

Viren, editor), Palgrave/Macmillan, 2008. 

2 The survey was conducted by the Finnish 

National Lottery Veikkaus in April 2006.

In several speeches I did mention that since 

1994 until 2007 the European Court of Justice 

did rule in 14 preliminary cases on gambling 

services. In 2008 the same European 

Court has already received 14 new preliminary 

referrals. As such this proves that the 

legal disputes surrounding gambling in the 

EU are creating the need for regulatory solutions. 

In his opinion in the Placanica case, the Advocate 

General mentioned on the last page 

of his opinion that the Member States did 

already miss several opportunities to regulate 

gambling services at EU level. Although 

the comment is surprising and unfair, considering 

the inadequacy of the solutions 

proposed by the Commission, it shows that 

the Court is not willing to become the final 

arbitrator in what is becoming an increasingly 

difficult political problem. 

Notwithstanding this, one has to admit that 

the European Court has acted in this area 

with great respect for the sensitivities and 

problems at stake. The Court, as always, 

took up its own responsibility as far as the 

Court could go and did substantially contribute 

to create conditions allowing the 

Member States to understand what is possible 

within the actual context of the Treaty. 

From Schindler to Placanica the Court has 

designed the legal framework for gambling 

services under the Treaty and the limits 

thereof. 

The Treaty as such does indeed not provide 

for full answers to the complexity of 

the gambling issues and the Court understands 

this. The Portuguese internet gambling 

case did show how far reaching the 

difficulties are. None of the Member States 

16 

Where does Europe (want to) go? 

By Philippe Vlaemminck, EL Legal Adviser 

present, and there were many intervening, 

nor the Commission does want the gambling 

market to be driven by market forces. 

Already in Schindler, the Advocate General 

explained in a very high level and well argued 

opinion that applying market rules to 

gambling services will not lead to a better 

allocation of resources as aimed at by the 

Treaty. 

Today, however, the institutional crisis is 

deep. The Commissioner in charge of Internal 

Market questions does not want to 

do anything else than to apply the Treaty 

to gambling services. This could undermine 

the structures set up by the Member States 

to respond to addiction and criminal problems 

clearly connected to gambling. He has 

initiated infringement cases against an increasing 

number of Member States, proving 

by this that there is no simple legal problem, 

but rather a very serious political problem. 

The infringement cases will not bring solutions, 

but rather increase the problems. 

Strangely enough the Commissioner for 

Internal Market does not want to take up 

the political challenge, although the awareness 

of the problem is growing inside the 

Commission that, as the President of the 

Commission is stating, “a friendly solution” 

must be searched together with the Member 

States. 

The other institutions, who did refuse the 

earlier inadequate solutions (E-commerce 

Directive, Services Directive) proposed by 

the Commission, do take up their political 

responsibility although legally they don’t 

have the right of initiative. 

Indeed, following a meeting of the Government 

Agents to the European Court on July, 

10, 2007, the Member States decided to start 

a dialogue on this matter. It took up until the 

current French Presidency before the idea 

was implemented through the “Services 

and Establishment Working Group” of the 

Council. During the Competitiveness Council 

in December 2008 the French Presidency 

wants to report on the discussions in this 

Working Group. Surprisingly during the first 

meeting in July the Commissioner on Internal 

Market denied even to participate in this 

dialogue with the Member States instituted 

by the French Presidency. Let’s hope that 

this changes and that the Commission Services, 

who have over the years acquired a 

substantial knowledge of the problems and 

P AN RAMA 

Legal 

understand the sensitivities, can participate 

and contribute to this dialogue. This 

is indeed the only way to come to terms in 

this difficult area. The discussion although 

strongly focused on the problems of the online 

gambling market, will cover all aspects 

of gambling. A questionnaire has been sent 

to all Member States who are expected to 

provide input by 12 September. 

Also the European Parliament wants to 

contribute to a better solution. Indeed also 

the Parliament did initially reject the proposed 

solutions of the Commission, but is 

aware that the Treaty as such does not provide 

the solution. During the debate on the 

White Paper on Sport, it became clear that 

the European Parliament acknowledges the 

important role and contribution of Lotteries 

to the European sport model based upon 

amateur and grass root sports. 

In September, the IMCO Committee of the 

European Parliament wants to address the 

question of gambling in an own initiative report. 

Although initially the European Parliament 

was considering to look into the questions 

of the online gambling market only, 

the expectations are that the Parliament 

will take into consideration all consumer related 

aspects as well as the public order elements 

of crime prevention. The Parliament 

also wants to order a short study on some 

aspects of the gambling market to prepare 

its own work. 

Both initiatives can only be welcomed and 

show how both institutions take up their political 

responsibility to find proper political 

and regulatory answers, if necessary under 

secondary EU law, something that the European 

Court could as such not do. 

Today it is clear that a single Member State 

cannot provide all answers to regulate properly 

the gambling sector. The principle of 

subsidiarity as outlined in the Protocol of 

the Amsterdam Treaty does therefore require 

the European Union to look for the essential 

cross border aspects of the problem. 

This is what has to be done. The coming 

months will show us where Europe wants 

to go. European Lotteries can substantially 

contribute, as an experienced think tank 

and as the representative of the vast majority 

of the gambling sector, to the fact finding 

and the regulatory solutions.

17 

P AN RAMA

ELISE 

18 

European Lotteries 

Information Sharing Extended 

The need for aggregated quality data 

on Lotteries 

“Do we have the data we need to support 

key messages about Lotteries in the 

European Union?” asked the business intelligence 

people at Veikkaus, the Finnish 

national Lottery, at the beginning of 

2007. Could we, for example, state with 

accuracy the amount of money provided 

by Lotteries in the EU for societies in the 

form of taxes or money for good causes 

last year? Or could we tell whether sales 

have dropped or increased over the last 

five years? 

In spite of the number of questionnaires 

each Lottery deals with every year the 

answer was “No, not really”. Each Lottery, 

of course, has a very good and accurate 

picture of the situation in its own 

jurisdiction. However, stakeholders outside 

the sector often want an aggregated 

snapshot. Data should be grouped meaningfully 

and summarized at appropriate 

levels to give an overall picture based 

on accurate details where, for example, 

comparisons between jurisdictions are 

easily made. 

Information Professionals Working Seminar 

In December 2008 or at the latest February 2009 a Seminar 

on Info Sharing will be organised. 

The Lotteries who are interested to host this workshop are kindly invited 

to contact the Secretariat General 

P AN RAMA 

ELISE 

Such aggregated comparable data are 

necessary to have a meaningful and fact 

based policy discussion both nationally 

and regionally. The latest aggregated 

snapshots are from the Swiss Institute of 

Comparative Law in its “Study of Gambling 

Services in the internal market of 

the European Union”, June 2006 and 

“The Case for State Lotteries” by London 

Economics from September 2006. However, 

data in these reports are five years 

old and apply different terms for measuring 

the economic activities of Lotteries. 

Both reports underlined the need for better 

data and this is exactly what ELISE is 

all about. 

From data to key messages 

Grapes and wine are obviously not the 

same. You make good wine from grapes 

harvested at the right time and from 

the right fields; matured under constant 

surveillance by oenologists and bottled 

and served at the right temperature in 

the right glass. Likewise, data is not the 

same as information. You make good information 

by first choosing and defining 

the data you need to support the message 

you want to give. Then you collect 

the data. Thirdly, you control the data 

and make sure they can be meaningfully 

aggregated and finally you paint the aggregated 

picture and deliver your key 

messages. 

ELISE so far 

To define which “grapes” should be collected 

from which “vineyards” and how 

the storage and “fermentation process” 

should be handled, EL and Veikkaus arranged 

a two day workshop in Helsinki in 

February 2007. Some 30 lottery business 

intelligence experts discussed the framework 

and gave a small group of people 

the mandate to compile a new questionnaire 

which, for a start, could replace the 

general annual EL questionnaire. 

The group defined the data they wanted 

and for each data entry a small explanation 

was added to make sure that everyone 

would understand the same reading, 

for example “Gross Gambling Revenue” or 

“Number Game”. The “harvest” was done 

by EL which sent out the questionnaire

ELISE 

to some 57 European Lotteries (EEA lotteries 

plus three outside the EEA which 

participated in the workshop) in June 

2007. When a questionnaire was returned 

to EL, the people from the working group 

with the best knowledge of this Lottery 

made a thorough data verification. Was 

everything completed and did the data 

look right compared to other sources like 

annual reports, TLF or WLA? 

Following the “harvest” and the data control, 

the Veikkaus Business Intelligence 

Unit converted all figures into Euros and 

compiled the aggregated data. Finally, on 

the basis of the aggregated data, a report 

with information about the Lotteries in 

the EU could be prepared. 

ELISE results 

Some 54 of 57 Lotteries in the EEA answered 

the data survey giving a response 

rate of 95%. Here are a few of the results. 

In 2006, the total economic activity measured 

as gross gambling revenue (sales minus 

prizes) of the 51 Lotteries in the EU 

(27) was e 32.2 bn. The figure reflects 

the expenditure of European consumers 

from activities offered by state licensed 

national Lotteries. 

The two main activities were number and 

instant games accounting for 87% of the 

total. However, in many jurisdictions state 

Lotteries are entrusted by their governments 

to operate more than the games 

considered by most to be “traditional lotteries”. 

Some 31 national Lotteries in 15 

EU member states thus offer pari-mutual 

sports wagering and fixed odds betting is 

offered by 28 national Lotteries in 13 EU 

member states. Gross gaming categories 

from those two categories accounted for 

e 2.3 bn. 

Total mandatory money for good causes 

and Treasury, a feature which distinguishes 

national Lotteries from private 

for profit operators, came to e 20.6 bn. 

or the equivalent of e 42 per capita on 

average in the EU. 

The report was approved by the EL Executive 

Committee at its meeting in June 

2008 and is now available at the EL internet 

site https://www.european-lotteries.org 

where all the results can be seen. 

It was also sent to the participating Lotteries 

together with the aggregated “raw” 

data which allow each lottery to do its 

own bench marking and analysis. 

The vision for the future 

The collection of 2007 data has started 

and a new report is planned for the 

end of this year. The questionnaire was 

slightly amended to reflect the experiences 

of the first round but not so much 

that time series could not be made. Focus 

for 2007 will be on EU Lotteries and 

data like money for good causes and the 

use of Internet. 

EL and its Members are in a unique position 

to collect data from its own activities. 

The vision is thus to create a solid base 

of well defined, high quality aggregated 

lottery data at the EU level. This in turn, 

will allow EL and its members to share 

their knowledge of Lotteries with outside 

stakeholders to ensure a fact based policy 

discussion of Lotteries and their position 

in the European Community. 

19 

P AN RAMA 

Jean M. Jørgensen, 

Nordic Lottery Advice 

Fact box 

The ELISE working group is chaired by 

Mr. Léon Losch, EL Executive Committee 

member and Director of the Loterie 

Nationale, Luxembourg, facilitated by 

the EL General Secretary Bernadette 

Lobjois the members are: 

• Ms. Alexandra Perrier, International 

Relations Manager, La Française des 

Jeux, France 

• Ms. Annukka Ruuhela, Business Intelligence 

Manager, Veikkaus, Finland 

• Ms. Lydia Cano Houzé, Responsible 

International Games, Loterias Y 

Apuestas Del Estado, Spain 

• Mr. Ulrich Engelsberg, Senior Referent, 

Westdeutsche Lotterie, Germany 

• Mr. Wolfgang Leitner, Senior Manager 

& Ms Astrid Baier-Löw, Österreichische 

Lotterien, Austria 

• Mr. Richard Hickson, Policy and Public 

Affairs Manager, Camelot, UK 

• Mr. Jean Moreau Jørgensen, Nordic 

Lottery Advice, Denmark.

Ýstanbul Awaits You... 

20 AN RAMA 

P 

www.el2009.org

Members’ News 

Sweden 

2008 has been a very turbulent year for 

the lottery and gaming business in Sweden. 

The foreign operators are marketing 

themselves (illegally) more and more 

aggressively – one of them has even 

opened a retail shop in Stockholm City 

without being stopped, a “maffioso” is 

standing trial for operating illegal gaming 

machines and murdering competitors, 

the Government has declared that the 

possibility of selling out parts of Svenska 

Spel should be looked into, Svenska 

Spel is frequently accused by the Gaming 

Inspection for letting under-age adolescents 

play the VLTs and the CEO and 

two of its deputy managers suddenly left 

the company in April when a new chair 

had been appointed by Anders Borg, the 

Minister of Finance, and it was evident 

that he and the Svenska Spel top management 

had different views on how to 

run the state lottery. 

- It was quite a surprise to me, when I 

suddenly was asked to chair Svenska 

Spel, says Margareta Winberg, former 

top politician in Sweden and recently 

ambassador to Brazil. I have very little 

experience from the gaming business, 

apart from inaugurating the Stockholm 

Casino some years ago when I was deputy 

prime minister and was asked to do 

so by the then CEO Meg Tivéus. I suppose 

the minister wanted me because 

I am a quite well-known person and I 

am not afraid of speaking my mind on 

sensible issues. 

The mission she got from Mr Borg was 

quite clear – Svenska Spel must be much 

Interview 

with Margareta Winberg, 

Chair Svenska Spel 

more responsible in its marketing and 

product development, maybe to calm 

down the opposition from EU and the 

danger of being forced to give up the 

present restrictive gaming legislation. 

- I did not know very much about Svenska 

Spel and its CSR and gaming responsibility 

strategy when I accepted 

this position in April, she admits and 

obviously Mr Borg had little clue of 

what has been done and what is going 

on at Svenska Spel. Now I have changed 

my view – I am impressed of the committed 

work for responsibility and 

gaming awareness by all staff at Svenska 

Spel and the retailer awareness. 

Given the mission I received I have of 

course focused on all matters concerning 

CSR and how Svenska Spel can still 

market the games it offers properly. It 

is also obvious that the links between 

the owner and the lottery must be improved. 

I think that I will have the ear 

of the minister more than the previous 

chair and that matters will be better 

from now on. 

Some people were hesitant to the appointment 

of Mrs Winberg as chair 

– they were afraid that there would be 

too much talk about responsibility which 

could harm sales but it seems that this is 

not the case. Maybe it has even been an 

advantage to have such a public person 

leading the organisation since media are 

very keen on quoting her whenever she 

speaks in public. And so she does very 

often. 

- Now, I always take the opportunity of 

praising Svenska Spel and its CSR activities 

– I realise that it has a top reputation 

in the global lottery world for its 

responsible program - and I hope that 

this message gradually gets across to 

politicians, journalists and the players, 

she says with emphasis. 

No other Swedish lottery chair person 

has been so well-known as Margareta 

Winberg, This also means that she gets 

many calls e.g. from problem gamblers 

so by now she is very much aware of the 

adverse side of our business but this in- 

21 

P AN RAMA 

formation she can use in her daily work 

which takes up much more of her time 

than she expected. An important task for 

her is to find a new CEO. 

- We are looking for a good leader who 

is flexible and has a good insight into 

politics, she says. 

However, this could take some time, 

there will be a state report on the lottery 

business due Mid-December which 

will indicate how the Government wants 

to handle number games, sports betting, 

charity lotteries, bingo halls, VLTs and casino 

in the future. Some politicians would 

favour that the Government only keeps 

the “dangerous games” such as casinos 

and gaming machines and opens up for 

license system for the other products. 

- The new CEO also has to settle in Visby. 

I don’t see that as a problem, Margareta 

Winberg says. The city is very 

attractive, so is the job – and it is on 

Gotland that we have our main office, 

she concludes. 

At the upcoming WLA congress in Rhodes 

she will have the opportunity to meet other 

people from the lottery world. – I am 

looking forward to learn more about this 

fascinating, different business, she says 

on her way to open the 17 th Spelakademi 

(Gaming Academy) in Visby, where she 

among other speakers will listen to Jean 

Jørgensen speaking on current legal cases 

and French consultant Mr Marco Lopinto 

about the new legislation in France. 

Interview by Göran Wessberg 

Senior Advisor to Svenska Spel

Compared to lotteries in other parts of 

the world, most European lotteries do 

not experience the same success with 

instant tickets. Their market share for 

instant tickets generally ranges between 

1 and 20 percent. The corresponding figure 

in the U.S., for instance, is from 50 to 

70 percent. Lotto, Keno, sports betting 

and other games sold via a retailer terminal, 

the Internet and mobile phone represent 

the lion’s share of the European 

lottery market. 

There are, however, exceptions like 

France, UK and Sweden, where instant 

tickets are popular. Italy is another example 

where sales have increased tremendously 

in recent years. The main reason 

Italy’s Monopoli di Stato has experienced 

such phenomenal growth can be traced 

to Scientific Games’ Cooperative Services 

Program (CSP), a performance-based 

business model in which a third-party 

provides specialized services traditionally 

handled by the lottery. Third-party 

compensation is determined by lottery 

sales, a model proven to deepen the business 

relationship between lottery and 

third-party supplier because the attendant 

risks and rewards of managing 

the business are shared more equally. 

The lottery is able to respond more 

quickly and efficiently to changing market 

demands. 

A CSP implementation was a key initiative 

of the Monopoli di Stato’s bold vision 

in 2003. At the time, the Italian gaming 

regulatory body charted its plan to re- 

22 

Instant tickets – 

the Untapped Lottery Segment in Europe 

vitalize its instant scratch-off category. 

It has been four years since Monopoli 

di Stato implemented CSP and today 

its Gratta e Vinci product line routinely 

smashes sales records. Annual Gratta e 

Vinci sales in 2004 (pre-CSP) were 165 

Mil. e; by the end of Calendar 2008, sales 

are projected to be around 8.3 billion e, 

an increase of about 4,000 percent. 

Eyes Have Been Opened 

Italy’s growth has opened the eyes of 

European lotteries. Increasingly, CSP is 

now viewed as a viable business model 

for arresting declining or stagnating instant 

lottery sales. Five more lottery 

jurisdictions, in fact, have begun using 

the CSP business model. Key objectives 

embedded within each relaunch are what 

Scientific Games refers to as the 15 determinants 

of instant ticket demand. 

Among them: 

• Further develop product portfolio 

and adapt marketing strategy. Players 

say they want more tickets, they 

want fresher tickets, and they like to 

see something new and different every 

time they go into a retail location. 

• Optimize product positioning and improve 

players’ winning experiences. 

• Create more exciting games. 

• Enhance instant lottery presentation in 

retailer shops and promote the games. 

When retailers feel the excitement, 

they sell more actively. 

• Implement an efficient and effective 

ticket distribution system (need-based, 

24-hour delivery of tickets). 

P AN RAMA 

“Some lotteries will experience moderate 

sales increases from executing three 

or four determinants, but are unable to 

achieve the level of success they could if 

they would only make the commitment 

to execute all 15. That’s really the key 

to maximizing instant sales,” says John 

Walsh, Senior Vice President, Global 

Sales & Services for Scientific Games. 

On August 1 st , MSL, Ukraine’s largest lottery 

operator, began selling instant tickets 

under the CSP business model. “After 

witnessing Scientific Games’ success 

in other European countries, we realized 

Scientific Games would be the perfect 

partner to help grow instant ticket sales 

in the Ukraine,” said Georgiy Lozhenko, 

President of MSL. 

The Whole Story 

Premium 

Scientific Games has a whole division 

dedicated solely to the service side of 

the lottery business. This division is now 

comprised of over 200 people whose collective 

skills and talents can run from one 

to a myriad of components of a lottery’s 

business – including everything from 

sales and marketing to distribution and 

warehousing.

Premium 

It only takes a second to get the thrill of 

an instant game, but it takes an all-out 

effort to keep players coming back for 

that titillating kick. Instant games look 

deceptively simple, but they are the most 

demanding product for a Lottery market. 

There’s far more to it than just printing 

and distributing scratch cards, or creating 

a successful product mix: A specific 

instant game product, susceptible to fluctuations 

in the market, comes and goes, 

while the brand itself remains. 

Intralot faces the challenge to create a 

successful brand with lasting power. Our 

aim is not just to mix together the right 

ingredients and come up with a catchy 

product that risks losing its flair; our aim 

is to develop a leading and lasting brand. 

Backed by almost 15 years of experience 

on Instants worldwide, INTRALOT 

is keen and capable to rise to this challenge. 

While players might never think twice 

about playing an instant, at INTRALOT 

we ask ourselves and others, and get 

answers to some very critical questions 

when designing such a brand: What do 

players actually think and feel about instant 

games? What are the demographics, 

the market and the competition in 

the area where the instant games will 

be introduced? How can we best tailor 

product mix, payout percentage, and 

prize structure to deliver maximum excitement 

and increase players’ chances? 

What should the average selling price be 

and how many games should be offered 

at any one time? 

At INTRALOT we rely on top graphic art 

designers to produce fresh, eye-catching 

themes, striking graphics, and userfriendly 

tickets with information for both 

players and agents. Having reached the 

designs appropriate to each market we 

make it our business to choose the printer 

supplier who is most appropriate for 

each Lottery and who can best meet local 

needs for each and every market. 

The success of an instant game brand 

is based as much on the winning design 

of its tickets as on the agents selling the 

Creating a successful 

brand for instants 

products, since they are the ones who 

can appeal to consumers with zest and 

enthusiasm. We pay particular attention 

to the agents’ density, the payment terms 

and procedures, the agents’ incentive 

programs that will be offered by the Lottery 

and the agents’ inventory levels. IN- 

TRALOT ensures that the selling, cashing 

and settlement systems of traditional 

channels are designed to breed credibility 

as well as to maximize profitability and 

minimize the workload of agents and consumers 

alike. In its goal towards expanding 

consumer reach, INTRALOT strongly 

promotes the use of alternative distribution 

channels, whenever possible. 

A strong well balanced network as previously 

described is reinforced and supported 

by a powerful advertising strategy 

to tap into the public spirit of gaming and 

foster the brand image. We develop exclusive 

promotional and purchase material 

that support the brand and add a significant 

brick to the success and growth of 

the games. At all times INTRALOT analyses 

sales data in depth and uses them as 

a powerful managerial tool for recalibrating 

all aspects of Instants operation. 

To accomplish all of this takes more time, 

effort and resources than is required for 

any of the other Lottery products to be 

marketed. To make Instants successful, 

23 

P AN RAMA 

the optimization of all these factors is an 

absolute “must” as opposed to the easy 

recipe of “higher jackpots” that is the 

normal remedy for the Numerical games. 

Every Lottery that aims at achieving success 

in Instants should combine all the 

above ingredients that go into making a 

leading brand effectively so as to optimize 

the final result in the market. 

INTRALOT, having specific experience 

in a number of jurisdictions around the 

world is best suited to be the effective 

and credible partner to any Lottery for a 

profitable operation of Instants. 

With the in depth knowledge of all aspects 

of Instants operation and with the 

security of a mature worldwide operator, 

INTRALOT can set the goals needed and, 

in close cooperation with the Lottery, 

achieve them, so as to satisfy the shortand 

long-term needs of the marketplace, 

and create a loyal customer base which 

will grow, as satisfied customers spread 

the word.

READY, SET, GO! 

Historically, bringing a start-up or existing 

lottery online from start to finish has 

been complicated and involved a substantial 

investment of time and money. 

So much so that smaller Lotteries might 

consider the prospect of creating a truly 

secure, reliable, and manageable online 

Lottery too daunting a task. This is no 

longer the case. 

GTECH has designed a solution in response 

to the need for a quick and cost 

effective way for new Lotteries to get up 

and running and selling tickets fast, the 

GTECH GO Platform. GTECH GO is 

an all-in-one, plug-and-go system containing 

the games and basic applications 

critical to automating and running the 

day-to-day operations of a start-up lottery. 

GO allows Lotteries to begin selling 

tickets quickly and easily, earning revenue 

sooner. 

“GTECH is committed to providing innovative, 

cost effective, and relevant solutions 

to all Lottery operations, no matter 

what size or structure,” said GTECH 

President and CEO Jaymin Patel. “The 

GO solution was designed by our engineers 

to provide all of the automated 

tools that are needed to run a profitable 

start-up lottery with a timely, low cost, 

24 

GTECH GO is an end-to-end solution 

equipped with preloaded games and 

promotions, retailer management tools, 

built-in security and redundancy, reporting 

and accounting capabilities, and an 

industry-proven transaction engine and 

communication control system. GO leverages 

more than 25 years of industry 

experience, time and field tested applications 

and security measures and a true 

culmination of industry best practices. 

“We’ve been helping lotteries around the 

world run their business for nearly 30years,” 

continued Mr. Patel. “We know 

what it takes to successfully and securely 

start a lottery from scratch and look forward 

to working with governments that 

are interested in running a start-up lot- 

P AN RAMA 

Premium 

tery. Our goal is to have them selling 

lottery tickets quickly and easily, while 

starting to contribute to good causes 

and earning profits in approximately 90 

days,” concluded Mr. Patel. 

The GO platform runs the most popular 

games including: Lotto, Rapid Draw Keno, 

Numbers, Raffle, and 1x2 Sports Wagering 

Game. All of the games available include 

standard play slips, game tickets, 

and screens that are configured with the 

Lottery’s logo during the sale process. In 

other words, with GTECH GO, you are 

receiving all of the benefits of a fully automated 

lottery without a time consuming 

installation or high costs. With the 

new GTECH GO solution, the efficiency 

of online lottery has become more accessible 

to Lotteries around the world.

Semi-Premium 

Grupo Selco adds 1,000 more Wincor 

terminals to its network 

Venezuelans like games of chance. Every 

available centímo is saved for a visit to 

the outlets of the country’s numerous lotteries. 

With more than 3,000 networked 

branches, Grupo Selco is the largest provider 

of lotteries, IT systems and support 

services in Venezuela. For years now, 

the company, which is headquartered 

in Barquisimeto and has a branch office 

in Caracas, has purchased its hardware 

from Wincor Nixdorf, a global IT group 

headquartered in Germany. Wincor Nixdorf 

has meanwhile installed around 

3,000 Xion /M terminals in the Caribbean 

nation – and 1,000 alone were commissioned 

at the start of the year. With 

this delivery, Venezuela’s leading lottery 

company has expanded once again a network 

of outlets that has almost doubled 

from 1,600 to 3,000 in just two-and-a-half 

years! 

Wincor Nixdorf’s Xion /Mtop terminals 

are of the very highest standard the company 

has to offer. In addition, the associated 

Xiprint+thermal printer outputs 

tickets at high speed. The powerful duo 

permits rapid handling at the point of 

sale. Since 2002, Grupo Selco has cooperated 

closely with the local branch office 

of Wincor Nixdorf in Venezuela. With the 

aid of the local competence team, Wincor 

Nixdorf’s developers have been able to 

go on developing the system solutions on 

site and ensure smooth operation of the 

terminals. 

Passion for lottery 

This fine partnership is also visible ‘on 

the outside’: Grupo Selco has adopted 

the blue color of Wincor’s terminals as 

an identifying feature – it calls its 3,000 

outlets throughout the country “punto 

azul” or blue point. “Our collaboration 

with Grupo Selco is a classic success story 

that perfectly reflects our strengths,” 

says Andreas Kohlmann, Head of the 

Lottery Solutions Business Unit at Wincor 

Nixdorf. “Our teams work and live all 

around the world. They understand the 

needs and cultures of our local customers. 

That simplifies communication and 

strengthens mutual trust – a recipe that 

makes for successful, long-term customer 

relationships,” sums up Kohlmann. 

Contact: 

Wincor Nixdorf Lottery Solutions, 

Markus Sauter (Head of Marketing), 

Max-Stromeyer-Str. 116, 

D-78467 Konstanz, 

phone +49 (0)7531 94226-31, 

markus.sauter@wincor-nixdorf.com. 

25 

P AN RAMA 

Wincor Nixdorf in brief: 

Wincor Nixdorf is one of the world's leading 

vendors of IT solutions and services for retail 

banks and retailers. The company’s portfolio is 

oriented toward optimizing business processes 

at banks and retail companies, and is aimed 

primarily at cutting costs and complexity and 

improving service to the end customer. The 

company leverages know-how from its core 

business with banks and retailers to diversify 

into related sectors such as lottery companies. 

Wincor Nixdorf has a presence in over 90 countries, 

with its own subsidiary companies in 36 

of these. A total of more than 9,000 employees 

work at the Group. Wincor Nixdorf is the No. 

1 supplier of electronic programmable pointof-sale 

systems (EPOSs) in Europe and No. 

3 in the world. Wincor Nixdorf advanced in 

2007 to capture the No. 2 spot worldwide for 

shipments of automated teller machines, increasing 

its world market share to 21 percent. 

Its customers include 18 of the world’s 25 leading 

banks and 17 of the 25 leading retailers. 

Wincor Nixdorf generated sales of 2.15 billion 

euros in fiscal 2006/2007. In the first three 

quarters of the current fiscal year 2007/2008, 

the Group increased its sales revenues by 8% 

to 1,738 million euros, a jump of 12% after 

adjusting for exchange rate effects between 

the euro and U.S. dollar. A major driver of this 

growth was strong business in Europe; in addition, 

significant growth rates were posted in 

the regions of Asia/Pacific/Africa and America. 

Despite subdued overall economic conditions, 

Wincor Nixdorf expects sales to grow by 8% for 

fiscal 2007/2008 as a whole. Additional information: 

www.wincor-nixdorf.com

26 

Report legal seminar Porto 28 – 30 May 2008 

To everyone’s satisfaction the legal seminar 

this spring was held in the charming 

city of Porto. Despite some rain, the seminar 

was again a big success, not only because 

of the magnificent location and the 

very pleasant environment. Many thanks 

to the Santa Casa da Misericordia de Lisboa 

for hosting a terrific seminar. 

After a most welcome port wine (what 

else ?!) in the sky bar of our exquisite 

hotel and a nice dinner on Wednesday 

evening, we were ready for the kick off of 

the seminar on Thursday morning. 

The meeting was opened by Mr. Vitor 

Porto, the Managing Director of the Santa 

Casa da Misericordia de Lisboa, emphasizing 

the key issues lotteries have to 

deal with in the current legal and political 

environment. Mr. Porto considered it 

to be a great honour to be able to host a 

EL legal seminar on this very crucial moment 

in time. 

Afterwards the Chairman, Mr. Tjeerd 

Veenstra was happy to introduce his new 

concept of this legal seminar, thereby 

thanking all the members for their contribution 

with regard to the country briefings 

handed in before the seminar. 

The real work started on Thursday morning 

with a brand new item on the agenda : 

the collection and sharing of data by EL’s. 

Pernille Sonne announced the creation of 

a new legal survey that will be finalised 

soon and will amongst others gather legal 

data on the issues the different members 

are currently dealing with in the framework 

of infringement cases launched by 

the Commission against several member 

states. This aims at supplementing the 

legal database on the EL’s web site. Jean 

Jørgensen – alias the numbers man, as he 

P AN RAMA 

Workshops 

called himself – presented to us the new 

European Lotteries Information Sharing 

Extended (ELISE), which will enable 

EL and its members to supply statistics 

to support the key messages that are 

brought forward in the legal and political 

debate. The EL General Delegate, Mr. 

Rupert Hornig, rightly urged the members 

to provide the association with data 

on all key issues, in order to strengthen 

its position on the European arena and 

back up the legal and political arguments 

put forward by EL. The strategic value of 

data is indeed the basis of each EL position. 

Next on the program were the legal developments 

with regard to the numerous 

pending and new preliminary referrals, 

presented by EL Legal Advisors, Mrs 

Annick Hubert and Mr. Philippe Vlaemminck. 

Special focus went to the recent 

hearing in the Portuguese preliminary 

case, and the specific legal arguments 

that could be developed in upcoming cases. 

This was followed by an overview of 

the status of the different infringement 

cases the Commission launched against 

several member states and an assessment 

of the common items they address. 

Traditionally we had an extensive round 

table whereby each member (per country) 

had the opportunity to share the 

national developments concerning regulation, 

court cases and specific legal concerns 

with their colleagues. Like in the 

past this has proven to be a very effective 

source of information about what’s going 

on in each member state. 

The final presentations of the day made 

by Mr Jean Jørgensen and Mr Rupert 

Hornig, EL’s General Delegate in charge 

of public affairs in Brussels, were providing 

the lawyers an overview of the 

economic position of a few “competitors” 

and the political opponents and allies. 

Economics and public affairs are indeed 

a very different matter than legal affairs 

and in particular for lawyers not their 

normal piece of cake. Mr. R. Hornig explained 

that these items were of strategic 

importance in the EU arena.

Workshops 

After a great evening organised by our 

host, opening with a nice tour disclosing 

us the charm of the city of Porto and ending 

with a famous Port cellar visit with a 

nice dinner, the seminar continued for 

the usual second (half) day. 

This second day started with an excellent 

and detailed presentation by Anne 

Pattberg of Camelot on the EL CSR approach 

and certification. The presentation 

did prove that EL and its members 

do spend a substantial amount of time 

and resources to find a proper framework 

for one of the key issues addressed in the 

EU legal debate. A lively debate took 

place on this matter. 

The second presentation of the day by 

EL’s Legal Advisers, Mrs. Annick Hubert 

and Mr. Philippe Vlaemminck , went 

through the latest developments in the 

WTO saga on Internet gambling and the 

subsequent Trade Barriers action. The 

intervention made by EL was explained 

in detail as well as the need for further 

coordination. 

After the coffee break, several lawyers 

coming from different jurisdictions, Mr. A 

Van ‘T Veer, Mr. G. Jaeger, Mr. M. Janot, 

Mr. E. Romppainen and Mr. R. Von Leesen 

did present and discuss their views on legal 

compliance with regard to advertising 

and insider win policy. The presentations 

did prove that, according to the states 

concerned, a variety of different, but essential 

measures are applied. 

Finally the Chairman of the EL Legal 

WG summarized the two days discussion 

in a comprehensive way in its closing remarks. 

SCML was also praised as an excellent 

host of the seminar. 

By Annick Hubert & 

Philippe Vlaemminck 

EL Legal advisers 

27 

P AN RAMA

Hosted by: 

Société de la Loterie de la Suisse Romande 

SWISSLOS Interkantonale Landesloterie 

Integrity 

& Competition 

Challenges 

in Sports Betting 

June 9 - 12, 2008 Lausanne/Switzerland 

Sports Betting 

Seminar 

During the EURO 2008 

28 

“Integrity and Competition” – 

EL Sports Betting Seminar 

Lausanne 9 to 11th June 2008 

The programme had a good mix of non lottery 

key note speakers and lottery betting 

experts when 85 enthusiastic sports and 

odds specialists from 20 countries met in 

Lausanne, Switzerland, to discuss integrity 

and competition in sports betting. Like the 

EURO 2008 football championships was 

co-hosted by Austria and Switzerland, the 

seminar was generously hosted by Swisslos 

and La Loterie Suisse Romande. Jean-Luc 

Moner-Banet, CEO of La Loterie Swiss Romande, 

welcomed the participants and underlined 

the importance of both the integrity 

and competition issues facing the Lotteries 

sports betting operations. 

“Can we beat you? Probably not - but 

some of us do” 

Was the conclusion by Peter Dahlenmark, director 

of Betting Analysis, and a professional 

punter who earns his living as a punter and 

as sports betting lecturer. He outlined the 

tools he uses to beat the sports betting operators. 

Monitoring of markets and a thorough 

understanding of how prices (odds) are set 

through a mixture of competition, emotions, 

local knowledge and some times over 

reactions to rumours are some of the tools 

applied by both lottery odds compilers and 

professional punters. However, an important 

difference, as Dahlenmark explained, is that 

punters don’t have to bet but Lotteries must 

provide the odds. “Follow the money but go 

against the media rumours and public opinions”, 

was another piece of advice for punters 

wanting to become successful. 

Saving the integrity of sports 

Representatives of the world’s largest sports 

federations, UEFA, FIFA, and IOC demonstrated 

how seriously they considered the 

integrity issue and how much they were doing 

to keep their sports free of manipulation 

and match fixing. FIFA representative, Detlev 

Zenglein and Pâquerette Girard-Zapelli 

of the IOC ethics Commission used the occasion 

to inform that they had just entered 

an agreement which puts FIFA’s Early Warning 

System in charge of monitoring betting 

patterns on the Beijing games. The General 

Director of the French Tennis Association, 

Jean-Francois Vilotte, explained how they 

worked to ensure the integrity of their sport 

and about their efforts to create internationally 

agreed measures. Jens Nielsen from 

Danske Spil and chair of EL sports betting 

working group outlined EL’s efforts to move 

P AN RAMA 

Workshops 

from a voluntarily based monitoring system 

to a professional and full time committed 

body. 

“Don’t count on voluntary commitments 

from gaming operators” 

Many governments in Europe are currently 

reviewing their gaming legislation and they 

should not count on betting operators voluntarily 

paying for measures like monitoring 

systems, education and development of rules 

to ensure a clean sport. “The U.K. Gambling 

Act of 2005 does not oblige bookmakers to 

pay to maintain a clean sport. With very few 

exceptions they simply do not pay” said William 

Bush, director of the English Premier 

League. Governments must actively address 

the impact that the gambling industry has on 

sports and it must make clear provision in 

the gambling legislation. William Bush gave 

an introduction to a paper from Salford University, 

February 2008, which examined the 

risks to sports of corruption in betting. The 

paper also included a list of bet types and 

their potential dangers of inducing manipulation. 

Bets like “first to get a yellow card” 

were “comedy bets” and should be avoided 

all together. 

Competition and how to do better 

Walter Watson, De Lotto and Andreas 

Mattes, both members of the EL sports betting 

mailing group, showed how EL lotteries’ 

sports betting sales had developed over 

the last thee years. Whilst fixed odds betting 

had increased for some lotteries, pools 

betting showed a negative trend for all with 

the exception of LAE from Spain. Päivi Puhakka, 

Veikkaus, explained how they had 

hand-picked 100 private retailers for special 

treatment with education, exchange of idea 

forums and marketing material to the mutual 

benefit for both them and for Veikkaus. How 

betting was best done in sports arenas in the 

Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Sweden 

was explained by Walter Watson, Ludek 

Rasocha, Sazka, and Lennart Nilsson and Ola 

Carlsson of Svenska Spel. 

The primary value was not sales in itself but 

the opportunity to show the sports betting 

brand to the right customer group. 

David Sargeant, Finsoft, provoked the audience 

suggesting the death of the Long List. 

The static paper version should be replaced 

by dynamic, multi-sport and yet customized 

coupon style lists. In Norway, they aim 

at having all online play registered using a 

player card before the end of the year. Kai

Workshops 

Kristiansen, Norsk Tipping, presented the 

history of player cards in Norway and today 

they have more than 2.1 million cards for 

an adult population of only 3.6 million. The 

new chip card gives a top secure identification, 

allows cash free payment and connects 

the punter with his or hers preferred banc 

account. For Norsk Tipping, the database on 

customer registered transactions, of course, 

offer great value for CRM purposes. 

In 2006, the Italian gaming markets were 

re-regulated by the centre-left Prodi government 

and Massimo Temperelli, Sisal, gave a 

comprehensive overview of the markets after 

the implementation of the new regulations. 

The particularities of odds compiling on tennis 

was explained by Croatian Danijel Svigir 

and Marko Stokuca, Hrvatska Lutrija. Steen 

Madsen, Danske Spil and Ronald van Beek, 

De Lotto, outlined odds compiling on cycling 

and a Nordic panel with Johan Elevant, Svenska 

Spel, Jens Nielsen, Danske Spil and Niko 

Marttinen, Veikkaus, gave an update on the 

current live betting situation. Danske Spil 

sell 56% of their live betting through retailers, 

Svenska Spel only 12% whilst Veikkaus 

do not at all offer it through retailers. A new 

game concept build on LAE’s Quinigol was 

presented by Juan Lopéz Martinez of the 

Spanish LAE. Punters must predict the correct 

score of 5 matches but could choose to 

predict only one or two matches. LAE was 

presently developing the game for the Spanish 

market but they saw a potential multi-jurisdictional 

formula which might appeal to 

other lotteries. 

“There is a future for Lotteries sports betting”, 

said EL Legal Adviser Phillip Vlaemminck, 

but competition and the ongoing legal challenges 

make it difficult to predict how it will 

look. The CEO of the Swedish Spelinstitutet, 

Thomas Nilsson, shared his 20 years of experiences 

working with research and treatment 

of problem gambling. He strongly advised the 

Lotteries to continue using new technology 

not only to create new games but also to provide 

tools for players to prevent them from 

sliding into the problematic zone of spending 

too much time and money on gaming. 

Self-service and focus or follow 

The final business session had four presentations 

by the EL Premium and Semi-premium 

partners. Panos Pournaras of the Intralot 

partner Betting Company, Greece, saw 

great potential in the retailer environment. 

He suggested that self-service terminals and 

monitoring screens with a multitude of panels 

could enhance the sports betting punters’ 

experience. Wincor Nixdorf’s Markus Sauter 

showed the multipurpose terminals they 

used at the Manchester City arena and also 

emphasized the benefits of self-service terminals. 

From Scientific Games International, 

Stefan Allmer, suggested that Lotteries 

should not necessarily offer the same huge 

variety in their sports betting offers as private 

bookmakers but be more selective. The 

CEO of GTECH’s Finsoft subsidiary, Predrag 

Popovic, outlined how Lotteries could match 

the private bookmakers. They could, among 

others, outsource services like monitoring 

and risk management, enhance their existing 

strengths and “glocalise” i.e. offer the whole 

range of products through all channels but 

given a local flavour. 

Three evenings – six Euro 2008 matches 

– and live betting 

The evenings were, of course, loaded with 

the Euro 2008 football championships. During 

the first evening, Svenska Spel’s Lennart 

Nilsson and his colleagues organized a 

live betting competition. Divided into eight 

groups, the participants competed on who 

could make the most of 1,000 monopoly 

money betting at Svenska Spel’s live betting 

equipment. Some had listened carefully to 

the professional punter Dahlenmark’s advice 

as the winning group more than doubled 

their 1,000 fictive money. The second 

evening, the hosting Lotteries Swisslos and 

Loterie Romande hosted a great barbecue at 

a beautifully located hotel up in the mountains 

with a fantastic view over Lake Geneva 

and the snow covered Alps. The last evening 

featured public viewing on a gigantic screen 

and a little mourning from the Lottery odds 

compilers complaining about the evenings 

costly football results. 

Thanks to the EL General Secretary, Bernadette 

Lobjois, and her colleagues for the 

excellent organisation of the event. Also, 

a warm thanks to the members of the EL 

sports betting working group and its chair, 

Jens Nielsen, Danske Spil, for having put 

together a stimulating and very business 

relevant programme. Finally, thanks to the 

two hosting lotteries Swisslos and Loterie 

Romande and to all the participants for 

having created a rewarding and memorable 

learning experience. 

EL Moderator 

Jean Moreau Jørgensen 

29 

P AN RAMA

30 

Report of 2008 Industry Days 

Limassol Cyprus 18 to 20 June 2008 

Among over 200 delegates attending the 

2008 Industry Days in Limassol, Cyprus 

in June 2008, were senior staff members 

from the three Premium Partners, 

GTECH, INTRALOT and SCIENTIFIC 

GAMES, and the Semi-Premium Partner, 

WINCOR NIXDORF; the host Director, 

Stavros Michael, and members of his staff 

at the Cyprus Government Lottery, as well 

as Lottery Directors and staff from almost 

50 EL Member State Lottery and Betting 

Companies. 

Keynote papers addressed the challenges 

of advertising in our world of fragmented 

media, and explored the mind of 18 to 25 

year-olds and future consumer trends in 

Europe 

The key messages from Mr Antonis Gortzis 

were that in 2007, for the first time ever, 

the total global spend on advertising on 

the internet exceeded the total spend on 

advertising on the radio, and while “traditional 

advertising” was not yet dead, it was 

arguably not in the best of health. 

The Trend Analyst, Mr. Sean Pillot de 

Chenesey, challenged the audience with 

provocative concepts such as 

• Contemporary life is all about FUD … 

Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt 

• Young adults are intelligent and responsible 

• My Space and Face Book may soon be 

in decline, but people would continue 

to be interested in being digitally connected 

• We have TMI (too much information) 

and TMC (too much choice) 

P AN RAMA 

Workshops 

• “Renaissance Marketers” are needed to 

help us find “Brand Souls” 

Over the space of four mini-seminars, the 

four Partners delivered a vision of the 

future and what was required for those 

suppliers and consumers who wished to 

survive in it. 

In the SCIENTIFIC GAMES session we heard that one size does not fit all, if your aim 

is to provide the best service to customers. When developing your new media distribution 

channels you should not neglect to serve the needs of existing channel users. The 

needs of the “low and moderately involved customers” must also be looked after. The 

Nordic experience with the in-lane lottery ticket distribution points in supermarkets 

was described, including how the new facilities were achieving high levels of “natural” 

take-up by players. The Hessen experience with relaunching scratch cards and almost 

tripling sales over two years was shared.

Workshops 

In the INTRALOT session, we were exposed 

to a world where user-generated 

content would expand to feed the needs 

emerging from the growth in social networking. 

Paradoxically, we seemed to be 

moving from niche marketing to mass 

markets but, at the same time, the new 

consumers were expressing a preference 

for one-to-one marketing over mass marketing. 

New facilities and channels such as Bilyoner.com 

(a legal private portal offering 

access to authorised gaming in Turkey, including 

horse racing and the Turkish National 

Lottery) and SBox (a subscription 

tv channel for sports betting, incorporating 

sports news and statistics) were demonstrated 

as examples of where the future may 

already be with us. 

GTECH explored a new taxonomy of distribution channels – Lottery Retail (traditional 

retail channels), Lottery Direct (web, mobile and tv), and Lottery Entertainment (VLT 

and Casinos). They also presented the top-line results from a market research study 

carried out across ten jurisdictions where a very interesting trend emerged for the 

18 to 25 year-olds. When asked for preferences between different types of games this 

group, surprisingly, showed a marked preference for playing scratch card games (some 

licensed properties) and a preference for peer-to-peer card games. We also learned 

that, in Europe, technology will not be a qualifying requirement for playing, but the key 

will be to offer social gaming to new communities of players in a socially responsible 

environment. 

WINCOR NIXDORF session began by 

exploring how “The Wisdom of Crowds” 

worked when compared with the decisions of 

experts. Prediction Markets were explained 

and the example was given of a project to 

predict the Future of the New German Gaming 

Regulation “Staatsvertrag”. 

Prediction markets are now outperforming 

polls and experts in predicting unknown 

events. Experimental Prediction Markets 

are now being run by universities, companies 

offering software solutions, internet 

gaming companies and financial service 

companies. 

31 

P AN RAMA 

The “Days” ended with two back-to-back 

moderated sessions where five Lottery Directors 

raised issues and developed questions 

for, and joined in an open discussion 

with, senior representatives from the four 

Partners. Issues discussed ranged from 

the ownership of Lottery operating companies; 

responsible gaming; agent retailer 

monitoring; evolution of distribution channels, 

and what future is there for a world 

game. There may not have been complete 

agreement reached on “where does the 

future lead us” (the theme of the Industry 

Days) but like so many social interactions 

nowadays, it was more about the journey 

than the destination. 

The EL President closed the proceedings 

with a heartfelt thanks to the Cyprus 

Government Lottery, and appreciation of 

the work of the Secretary General and her 

ever-helpful staff. 

Ray Bates, 

EL Honorary President 

Moderator

32 

THE EUROPEAN LOTTERY UNIVERSITY 

EDITION 11 

HELD IN DUBROVNIK – CROATIA 

AUGUST 31 - SEPTEMBER 5, 2008 

The Lottery business is simple and yet 

complex. The formula to develop a 

successful lottery management training 

program is thus both simple and complex. 

Simple because, basically, it would include 

conceptual topics on the major business 

functions, challenges and issues and, 

complex, because it needs to be updated, 

adapted and enhanced to reflect the 

changing panorama of the lottery industry, 

and innovative and creative enough to 

attract participants from all over Europe, 

year after year. 

Actually, the reputation of the ELU is 

overflowing Europe. This 11 th edition 

included also participants from Canada 

and Zambia. That had the indirect effect of 

bringing additional and different experiences 

and lottery background, to be shared with 

their European counterparts. 

The 11 th ELU was held in Dubrovnik, 

following the invitation from the Croatian 

National Lottery which demonstrated, 

after ELU 9 at Zadar also in Croatia, their 

hospitality and dynamic management. 

48 managers and representatives from more 

than 25 different organisations attended, for 

5 days, the ELU following the steps of 450 of 

their colleagues. 

The program covered most components of 

the lottery business model: 

- management of the lottery organisation 

with presentations on structure, state 

monopolies, the legal environment, corporate 

social responsibility and business continuity, 

P AN RAMA 

Workshops 

- the games offered with presentations on 

the different families of games, Instants 

games, Sports Betting, Interactive 

games, 

- the distribution channels with 

presentations on New Technology 

Trends, Branding, Marketing in today’s 

environment, Communications and 

advertising, Retailing and POS, 

- the control and distribution of funds 

with presentations on Finance and 

Control, and Risk Management, 

- the design of an Instant game, the 

development of a launch strategy from 

idea-to-market, the development and 

implementation of a modern lottery 

organisation, panels, workshops and 

structured discussions. 

The participants were thus grouped in six 

“organisations”, identified by planet, and 

had to compete to present a business plan 

including the various components of the 

elaboration and development of a modern 

lottery organisation. This year’s winners, 

was the Elucky Lottery as selected by 

a jury composed of Ray Bates, Reidar 

Nordby and Jean Marc Lafaille. 

The faculty included as well André Chaker 

(Finland) Evangelos Cosmidis (Greece), 

Alexandros Gerontikos (Greece), Vincent 

Hotyat (Belgium), Georges Nahon (USA), 

Gilbert Rehayem (Canada) and Philippe 

Vlaemminck (Belgium). 

Supported by Ray Bates, since 2006 

EL Honorary President, championed 

and organized by Bernadette Lobjois, 

Secretary General and designed and 

moderated by Gilbert Rehayem, the ELU 

is now considered to be the finest and 

most successful management training of 

its kind in the Lottery world. As mentioned 

above, over 11 years, it has attracted over

Workshops 

500 collaborators/managers from all over 

Europe and others continents. ELU 

alumni now hold high-level positions in 

all EL member Lotteries. ELU has been 

enhanced, improved and enriched to 

offer a unique combination of academic 

presentations, case studies, workshops 

and networking. 

A well-deserved thank-you to Ms Vesna 

Bakran, CEO of the Croatian National 

Lottery, for her warm hospitality, for the 

second time, to Bernadette Lobjois, the EL 

Secretary General for the overall excellent 

organization of the seminar, and a special 

debt of thanks to all speakers involved in 

the seminar who, due to their experience 

and knowledge, presented brilliantly the 

many aspects of this sector. A special 

thanks to all the participants who made 

the ELU, by their comments, participation 

and involvement, a beneficial, useful and 

entertaining initiative. 

The next ELU promises to be even more 

exciting … rendez-vous in 2009!! 

Gilbert Rehayem 

EL Moderator 

33 

P AN RAMA

Access. Reach. Grow. 

Wave Hello to the Future. 

Scientific Games delivers on its commitment to be a good neighbor and good global citizen and, 

as such, is committed to socially responsible gaming and sustainable business practices. 

Wave is designed, engineered and tested from the ground up with a single 

purpose: to make it faster and easier to sell and manage lottery products at 

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Games’ Fulline lottery solutions, Wave empowers lotteries to access new 

markets, reach new players, and grow lottery sales. 

Contact your Scientific Games Regional Director for more information. 

P P 

34 34 AN AN RAMA 

©2008 Scientific Games

EUROPEAN STATE LOTTERIES AND TOTO ASSOCIATION

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