Convergence has brought the two betting options closer than ever…
As reported by the ggbmagazine.com, gaming and lottery kingpins target a multibillion-dollar truth: a gambler is a gambler.
Lucrative slot revenues may originate from the same people playing lottery hardball. As in Powerball, just one entity of the lottery world. It hit an all-time jackpot of $1.5 billion in January during a frenzied promotion across 44 American states.
Perhaps three quarters of the gambling and lottery markets intersect, a fact realized by their ultimate power brokers.
Scientific Games, which introduced the first secure instant lottery ticket 42 years ago and now holds a reservoir of about 40,000 games, pronounced its interest in the gaming-lottery synergy by annexing slot makers WMS in 2013 and Bally Technologies in 2014.
Lottery giant GTECH also recognized the correlation between these two industries by acquiring IGT in 2014 and forming IGT Plc.
Scientific Games and IGT spent about $14 billion to become the world’s gaming-lottery czars.
Lotteries benefit from them. American states prosper by running a gambling business without major construction costs, because retail chains and convenience stores serve as headquarters. Casino-style games provide panache and expand the lottery menu.
States tax revenues and trumpet the virtue of funds to address education, parks, waterfalls and senior citizens. It’s Mom, apple pie and money. Everybody wins.
IGT and Scientific Games offered a compelling first year as industry giants in 2015. They serviced both the reality of technical lottery innovations and the fantasy of instant financial fame. New systems and ideas have sprung from the partnership of two industries. A lottery player can scratch off a ticket and travel all the way to a television appearance in the heart of a gaming capital like Las Vegas.
Perhaps it is true. All you need is a dollar and a dream.
