There is a story brewing in the UK about the possible move of lottery ticket sales from over the counter to online.
The push to online is getting some good media coverage, including this in the Financial Times:
The UK’s National Lottery needs to be hauled into the digital age with scratch cards on mobile phones and greater presence on social media to halt the decline in people playing, the head of one of the main bidders to take over the licence has claimed.
Sir Keith Mills, chair of the bid by the Czech company Sazka, told the Financial Times that Camelot, the National Lottery’s current operator, had “not kept pace with change” after an explosion in online gambling lured away younger customers, causing it to lose 8.5m players in the past decade. Currently, about 40m people play National Lottery games.
Mills, who created Air Miles and led the London 2012 Olympic bid, added: “The money to good causes has plateaued and I do worry that unless the National Lottery is reinvigorated it will go into a decline.”
Not that this impacts lottery retailers in Australia, it does speak to the broader over the counter to online pitch.