Opening addresses
Sarah Taylor, Chair of the WLA CSR Committee, underscored the importance of this key annual RG event co-organized by WLA and EL, which is an excellent industry learning and networking opportunity. She added that the seminar is a catalyst to understand and protect Gen Z and Gen Alpha, two at-risk groups that the lotteries and sports betting operators must protect, through the better understanding and engage with on the risks of gaming and importance of responsible gaming.
Piet Van Baeveghem, EL Secretary General, highlighted that EL’s new strategy will address challenges in the lottery sector in Europe and how EL can best assist its members with them. One way to achieve this is to emphasize positive RG efforts of lotteries that put player safety first, to regulators and other organizations. He stressed the need for the lottery to demonstrate and advocate how lotteries are different from other organizations, in an evidence based way using data.
Erwin Van Lambaart, CEO of Austrian Lotteries noted that the WLA and the EL face today's challenges together and help their members to raise their already high standards by learning from each other every single time we meet tomorrow in mind. He added that only when we understand the needs and the expectations of the next generations of players, we can stay relevant for society and being able to safeguard our customers.
International best practices for communicating with young adults
An important theme of the event on addressing the emerging adult population and gambling, was how to better understand this group of 18–25-year-olds, and learn how to communicate with them effectively in order to protect them from potential player risks.
Keynote speaker Elisabeth Ponocny-Seliger, Occupational, Clinical and Health Psychologist, University Lecturer, provided detailed insights into Gen Z, which comprises 25% of the global population, and has a high mental vulnerability. These fearful, digital natives have only known the world of self-promotion on social media including Google, Instagram/Snapchat/TikTok/WhatsApp, Wikipedia and YouTube.
On the topic of Gen Alpha, Children of Gen Y / Millennials, this is a very diverse generation in terms of ethnicity, gender identity, personal values (equality & inclusion), but very mentally vulnerable like Gen Z.
This group is 100% digital and the first AI-generation. AI replaces what used to be unique human abilities for a generation which is digitally connected but physically isolated. In their AI world where everything works and no one knows why, traditional educational concepts disappear. With all of this in mind, a different approach is required when communicating with these generations.
Norway – Norsk Tipping
The Norsk Tipping lottery reiterated some of these points, noting that it was important to understand the fears, likes and dislikes, habits, aspirations and the way technology shapes the lives of the next generations, in order to successfully communicate with them about the importance of playing responsibly, and staying safe, and showed some of the campaigns where young people telling their stories spontaneously on social media channels were far more successful in reaching the target audience than traditional communications.
Spain – ONCE
Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles (ONCE), together with the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), the largest in terms of student number and a leader in research, began a new project to promote research in Responsible Gaming, with the aim of bringing RG closer to all audiences, facilitating its understanding, and analyzing efforts to improve effectiveness.
In order to get the campaign right, and reach the generations at greater risk, young adults were asked to come up with an idea to achieve this through a Hackathon “Practice Responsible Gaming” to communicate the scope and benefits of Responsible Gaming to other young adults.
North America – Rhode Island Lottery
The Rhode Island Lottery, found that traditional responsible gaming campaigns may not resonate with emerging adults due to generational differences, evolving cultural norms, and shifts in technology use, but partnerships with influencers can authentically deliver RG messaging, leveraging credibility, relatability, and impact among youth.
Describing the challenge of an increase in emerging adults engaging in problematic gambling and the need for a plan for education and awareness raising for this group, the Lottery demonstrated the benefits of Using a Local State Influencer, on the mediums most used by these generations, and how some of the campaigns were successful, because they resonated with emerging adults, in terms of credibility and relatability, expanded reach and cultural alignment.
Global perspectives on protecting young adults with prevention projects
Echoing some of these points, lotteries from around the world shared similar experiences in their markets, and the new strategies for finding effective ways to successfully communicate with young adults.
France – FDJ United
Following a survey of underage gambling in France, that showed a persistent high level of underage gambling and resulting negative consequences, FDJ United decided to support a nationwide prevention programme, called OPERA, with the purpose of educating young people aged 16 to 19 on the risks of gambling aims. The goal is to enable young people to understand the intrinsic risks of gambling; understand the mechanisms behind these games of chance; deconstruct erroneous beliefs and reinforce psychosocial competencies.
Germany – WestLotto
WestLotto described its challenge of being a gambling provider, that is not permitted to directly address young people under the age of 18. Its solution: run smart camps that educate on how to play responsibly with sessions and workshops to highlight issues. It also took a more holistic approach through GameShift NRW, which aims to promote sustainable gaming habits, through an online platform, further training for teachers and parents, a gaming app and game days in school to educate on the topic.
North America – Virginia Lottery
The Virginia Lottery discussed the rise of the gambling influencer and the red flags around them, such as, unrealistic wins and no wins shown, opaque or dubious sponsorships, targeting vulnerable audiences, aggressive bonus and link pushing. Celebrities endorsing such products feeds into the challenge.
The Lottery emphasized that when innovating cultural technology in RG messaging requires: the right tone and words, the right messenger. Partnerships matter, pooling resources among regulators could be useful, and the industry must fight against illegal ads.
WLA Scholarship program
Sergio Poves from La Tinka, Peru, attended the Seminar through the WLAÂ Scholarship program, with the support of CIBELAE Regional Association. The Progam was established to financially support lottery professionals and allow them the opportunity to attend events, share experiences, learn from peers, and broaden participation and perspectives.
Poves commented that he could learn a lot from this event with its diverse international speakers and topics . Given that there are no such events in Peru, he was grateful to WLAÂ for the experience.
