The Victorian Government today increased the number of lottery games from three to five. While we will get behind the new Monday and Wednesday games, I am concerned at consumer fatigue. In our own newsagency, we helped migrate Wednesday Tattslotto customers to other games. I don’t want to see those games suffer at the hands of the new games. Nor do I want to see the Intralot Keno, Bingo and Lucky Lines games suffer.
I believe the governments decision to award the mid week lotto to Tattersalls is a mistake.
It would have been better to allow Intralot to compete on an even basis with Tatts by having a similar game, thus ensuring that they survive and ensure that lottery market competition is always available.
When will tatts start with mid week lotto.?
I have been told that it will not commence until December at the earliest.
That means we loose revenue for another 3 months.
I am told that Intralot could have switched on their system by the end of September, as they have the contract in WA for lottery software.
Apparently Tatts have to now undertake massive installations there.
I also ask Is it true that Tatts have not had to pay a license fee for the rights to mid week lotto.?
My local MP told me last night that Tatts were given the license for nothing , to compensate them for not having their gaming license renewed\they threatened to shift their entire lottery operation to QLD if they were not compensated.
Now we still have Tatts controlling 95% plus of the lottery market.
Who benefits from this in the long term.?
Believe me, as a lotterywest agent in WA, we very much wish Intralot was not the provider of our lotto machines.
They run at half the speed of our previous machines, offer no compelling new features worth the upgrade and have meant having to put on extra staff at busy newsagents to deal with the machines slowness, whereas before one employee might suffice to run the machine and serve other customers in between lotto customers.
Intralot have managed to worm their way into Australia, and learned the secrets of the lottery systems here and are putting the screws on tatts with what they learned from Lotterywest.
You want more competition? I say thank god we’re not tying ourselves in with intralot any further than we already are.
Out with Intralot, useless bunch of snakeoil merchants.
Intralot is slow cumbersome and inefficient. We have both Intralot and Tatts and any transaction via intralot is five times slower to process than the same transaction on Tatts tying up resources needlessly for no extra benefit. If it was not for Instant tickets (scratchies) Intralot would not have a hope. Obviously due to legal ramifications the government will not allow Tatts to have a scratchies as we would then dump Intralot quicker than their machine can process a ticket.
I’m in Qld, so I don’t know the full story, but why did you guys have to pay to get Intralot into your stores? Do you have the option of taking it out of your stores?
Michael, The Victorian Labour government broke the lotteries license into two parts. Bloc games and non bloc games. Intralot were awarded the license for Non Bloc games such as instants (scratchies) Keno etc whilst Tatts maintained Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday games as well as pools. This was disguised as competition. Lottery agents were then forced to apply via Intralot to sell what we were already selling at a fee of $10k. This also incurs dual terminal fees, delivery fees etc. Intralot also will allow anyone to sell their products providing they pay the fees. We now have a local post office and bottle shop selling Intralot products within the same area. We can get out of Intralot at $1.5K but would not be allowed to sell instants or Keno.
Thanks for that Kyall. I really feel for all of you down there, especially after what’s happened to the industry in the last six months. I hope it doesn’t happen here in Qld and I hope it’s get better for all of you.
Incredible. I guess lotterywest aka the Western Australian government has eaten all those ‘costs’ for use WA lotterywest outlets. I would not wish intralot on anyone and generally Mark’s upbeat comments about them make me gag a little.
Shame on lotterywest and shame on your governments for letting this insidious parasite into lotteries.
Lotterywest could switch back to the 15yr old Coronis system we had before tomorrow and not only would no retailer complain, they would infact praise them for doing so. Intralots machines are slow, tedious and are orders of magniture worse than Coronis and whatever Tatt’s is using.
Pending approval it looks like the Monday/Wednesday lotto will take place on October 15th so it appears the talk/concerns of it being ready to go by December at the latest were totally unfounded.
I’m not sure about everyone else but i’m really excited about the commencement of this game. Obviously the old Wednesday game wasn’t a very popular seller overall compared to the other games, but with bigger jackpots and having the Monday draw incorporated into it as well i can see it being much more successful than it’s predecessor.
But the biggest thing for me is and why i’m looking forward to it is that it’ll certainly help recoup some of the money i’ve lost from Intralot. Hopefully that’ll improve as well for everyone who it’s impacted on in the next 6-12 months so we can put the woeful start they’ve had for the vast majority of agents behind us.
Dean (Noelle and Steve and Jenny- the other names you use here for your comments), will it help recoup the revenue lost from the scratchie bay?
Tattersalls lost the monopoly. The State Government made the decision.
Tattersalls then enforced a real-estate lock out which banished Intralot to second and third class positions.
Your write as if Tattersalls is pure and innocent and Intralot is the bad guy. I think you would find any reasonable independent assessment is that they are not.
Mark
Mark, i never lost commissions from my scratchie bay because as i’ve mentioned elswhere, my Intralot scratchie sales are slightly higher than what the were of Tattersall’s. It’s the ONLY thing that has had a slight lift. In saying that, it’s nowhere near enough to cover the losses incurred overall.
In your simplisitic little world you might think that a slight increase in scratchie sales covers the whole lot and justifies something but it doesn’t. It doesn’t cover the thousands in commision i’ve lost on keno alone let alone Tatts 2 and Wednesday lotto.
I act as if Taats are all pure and innocent do i? Well i suggest you read my past posts to see the trouble i’ve had with them over the years to see that’s just bullshit. But i know you have read them and choose to just conveniently leave them out to strengthen your already flimsy “argument” If you want a reminder of the troubles i’ve had with Tatt’s just let me know and i’ll be more than happy to find them and repost them for you to see.
The FACT is, for all Tattersall’s faults i do very well out of them commission wise and that’s the most important thing to my business which means it’s even more important to my family. They’re my bread and butter so to speak so If i’m making a few thousand a week commission on tatts and under $100 from Intralot of course i’m going to take a dim view of the latter.
Are you that blatantly stupid not to be able to understand that? You have a couple of business’s apparently so i’m guessing you couldn’t possibly be THAT dumb. Even though the scratchie bay crap that Tatts has made us endure has turned out to be somewhat as a blessing in disguise for me i don’t for one second condone or agree with it. Do i think Tatts are pure and innocent in that regard? No, i think they’re nothing but greedy and are looking after their own interests and not those of their accredited representatives. In my opinion Tatts had no right to tell us what we could and couldn’t sell in the shopfit WE were made to pay several thousands for.
There you go Mark, once more i voiced my displeasure at Tatts for all to see so you’re going to have to think of another feeble argument to counter mine. I’ve had many run ins with Tatts over the years about various issues but deplorable sales figures wasn’t one of them which is precisely what this is about. If you want to start a Tatts complaint thread then please do and i’ll be more than happy to share with you and others the troubles i’ve had with them. I’ve already touched on them before which you seemed to have conveniently missed but like i said i’d be more than happy to pass them on in an appropriate thread.
Unlike your good self, i care about every one of my fellow agents and just because i may have had some benefit of moving scratchies, i know some others haven’t and i feel for those who are suffering because of it. Unlike you i don’t just say “stop whinging” and “just get on with selling it and stop complaining” In your own pompous arrogant way just because you’re one of the very few that are having some sort of success with Intralot.
The bottom line is if you don’t want to hear me complain about Intralot then don’t read my post, it’s not that hard really.
Dean (Noelle, Steve and Jenny) I am happy to read your comments and your attacks.
You don;t know me and you don;t know the breadth of my concern for and care about newsagents.
Don’t make this about me, make this about suppliers being accountable.
I’d trust your comments more if you use the one name.
Mark
Poor old Mark
Is it a sin to allow more than one person to use the computer and record their respective names or has it been etched in blog law that only one person must register their comment – you have such a fragile ego
What is your first name anon?
Anon, nothing to do with my ego at all. It is helpful for people to know who hides behind multiple names. Mark
Mr
And after that?
Michael (if that is your real name) and Mark – my point being that you seem to languish over the title of the contributor more than the substance of the contributor’s post. What’s in a name for God’s sake, get over it and enjoy the ride
Anon ,nothing that you contribute is worth while reading anyway .Your only purpose on this blog is to annoy people.
looks like it’s working then
It is my real name. It is common courtesy to have a name. When introducing yourself to people do you say your name is anon? When you get pulled over by the Police for not wearing your helmet on your push bike and they ask your name do you tell them “anon”?
no way – I never stop for the coppers otherwise I’d be late for school
Anon what an achievment
Your a naughty girl.
Shauny boy, you almost spelt it correctly (achievement) but not a bad effort considering.
Now Michael, if that is really truly your name, “Your a naughty girl” must be rewritten twenty times “You’re a naughty girl” otherwise I will lose respect for you in the morning
Everyone i think we need to leave anon alone as this looks like a cry for help , going from blog to blog just looking for someone to chat to is a sad way of living your life .
Shaun, I just find it amusing that someone (who can’t be named!) that doesn’t have a real grasp of the industry is spending their time typing rubbish here. It does look like a cry for help – there must be a screw loose somewhere.
Way to totally ignore the real issues Mark. When your pathetically weak arguments are being exposed as such you totally ignore the issues at hand with something that’s totally meaningless.
It’s totally irrelevant what my name is, the things that i bring up are very real issues that many of my fellow agents are facing and you choose to ignore them just to save some sort of face by diverting the subject matter to something completely useless.
I couldn’t care less if you trust me or not. This might hurt your fragile ego but this isn’t about you and it isn’t about me. The things i bring up (and you choose to ignore/deflect) is all about our industry and everyone who sells these products. So get over yourself and discuss the issues that really matter.
If i want to retain some sort of anonymity on here that’s purely my business and nothing to do with you. You can try and discredit me all you like but that doesn’t change the fact that i and the vast majority of other people are much worse off with the introduction of Intralot and that’s the real issue here no matter how much you try and deflect that with your childish identification games and attempting to sweep it under the carpet.
You’ve accused me of working for Tattersall’s even after i’ve given several stories of their greed, selfishness and holier than thou attitude to certain situations. You on the other hand have offered nothing but glowing endorsements to a company that is quite clearly under performing and has left the vast majority of agents financially worse off.
Can you see why it’s pretty clear that people think you’ve struck some sort of deal with Intralot to endorse a product that is quite clearly inferior to it’s competitor no matter how much you deny it?
At least i’ve pointed out the inadequacies of both companies as opposed to just the one like yourself. You’ve done nothing but heap praise on the company i dare say you’re making much much less money off than the one that’s bring in much more of it. Hrrmmm, I wonder why Mark, but it doesn’t really take Eistein to work it out.
Once more, i don’t care and it’s totally irrelevant whether you trust me or not, just because you dont doesn’t mean these problems don’t exist.
Hey, go easy on Mark please Dean, he’s still got a hangover from the intralot Christmas party
Dean, I think you should write to the Gaming Minister and explain it to them. I do see your point.
If it works in Mark’s stores then good luck to him, there’s horses for courses.
Anon, hahaha that one gave me a good laugh. It’s funny because i can just see it being true.
Michael, just recently i’ve taken it up with my local member of parliment as i was advised to do. Failing that i’ll then take it up with the gaming minister, the only reason i didn’t do that in the first place is because i’ve no doubt he’d have a massive backlog of disgruntled Intralot retailers and i didn’t want to become just a number so to speak.
I’ve no issue at all with Mark having success with Intralot, in fact i’ve congratulated him on it. My gripe is that in several posts to me and others he’s basically swept the issues that most of us have had under the carpet and refused to acknowledge them just because he’s one of the few who has had some success.
Just because it’s worked for him to some degree it doesn’t change the fact that collectively agents are millions of dollars worse off compared to what they were before Intralot came in. That’s not lies, it’s not exaggeration, it’s cold hard facts and reality. Mark knows this as well but because he’s doesn’t seem to be incurring the losses most of us are he doesn’t give a crap about it.
It’s all well and good to say “Stop your whinging and get selling” but when you’ve tried everything you possibly can to do that and still not have any significant sales increase it’s every bit as discouraging as what it is maddening. Certain people seem to take the attitude that because it’s working for him they couldn’t really give a stuff for the hundreds of retailers that are losing money and to me that’s an incredibly selfish attitude.
I’m sure Mark will tell all who care to listen that he does care and he’s here to help, but if that were the case we wouldn’t cop the well worn line of his of stop whinging and get selling etc etc etc It’s hardly the stance of someone that cares i don’t think.
I’d love NOTHING more than to come on here and tell everyone that my sales have improved and moving forward in regards to Intralot. I don’t enjoy “whinging” as he puts it and i can promise you right now when/if i start showing sustained revenue increase i’ll be the first to come on and tell everyone because it might give others hope that things might improve for them as well.
But until then i cannot and will not come here and sugarcoat things and make it seem like they’re fine when they aren’t. Mark tries to twist it like i have some sort of personal vendetta against them but the truth is i’m just your normal everyday newsagent like most on here that’s much worse off now than what i was before July 1st.
I and many others lost enough out of that Bill Express debacle and it when all that turned to crap and lost thousands from that we walk straight into this and lose even more.
Quite frankly i’m pissed off we’ve had to endure both these things and i make no apologies for that no matter how much Mark want to disagree with it and ignore the real issues.
Dean,
You are loose with the facts. You say in an earlier comment that I accuse you of working for Tattersalls. If you read what I asked I made no such accusation.
I tell you to stop complaining because Intralot is less than three months old. It is a start up. It is too early to complain to the extent you have. Start ups take time. I wnet into Intralot knowing this. In one store it is doing well and in to others it is struggling but it is too early to complain.
Intralot was blocked from reasonable real-estate by the actions of the State Government and by Tattersalls. This is another reason to NOT complain about Intralot – they have not got what they wanted.
I am ignoring nothing. First up I am providing a forum here for discussion. I have also offered to organise and hots a meeting where people can talk about these issues face to face. I have also published ideas which have worked for me. I have also taken suggestions to Intralot, some of which have been actioned by the company. What else would like me to do to demonstrate that I am not ignoring this?
Take the issue to the Minister. He is the person who made the decision. He ought to be held to account.
Mark
Calling intralot a start up is like saying westfield is a milkbar,intralot operate and run gambling operations on every continent in the world,they have a massive market capitalization and huge operational and marketing structures worldwide,they were awarded(aka given) 30 % of a mature business in the victorian lottery market and still they messed up their launch (and thus our profitability),they did get what they wanted (and tendered for)Mark, they just werent prepared in any capacity for what they tendered for,and we suffer the consequences…intralot more so than the government should be held to account, they made undertakings as part of their offer(aka contract) and are so far off them they ought to lose the licence immediately…run a strawpoll and see who would prefer the situation to be pre july 1,i certainly do,i shouldnt have to “wait” as you say for my business just to return to what it was, because they overestimated and underdelivered,You say its too early to complain, i say its hopefully not too late.
Great to get the tattersalls POS for Monday/Wednesday Lotto today. POS is bright and interesting so should attract the customers eye. Already talking it up. Customers seem to be interested. Looking forward to the first draw.