BCBusiness

SEPtEMBEr 2015 BCBusiness 23 ADAM BLASBErG FAcTOID BClC has 385 of its 860 employees in Kamloops, where the Crown corporation and its Ceo are based T his year marks the 30th anniversary of the British Columbia Lottery Corpora- tion ( BCLC)—the organization charged with running the province's casinos, e-gambling sites and lottery product sales. It is one of B.C.'s most profitable Crown corporations—delivering almost $1.2 billion in net income on revenues of around $2.8 bil- lion. But the organization is not without controversy. Despite its dividends to the treasury, many worry about the social costs associated with gambling—be it addiction or organized crime— and the government's reliance on revenues derived from this so-called vice. On a management level, there was recent contro- versy surrounding Lightbody's predecessor, Michael Graydon, who negotiated his terms of employment with Paragon Gaming—a company BCLC regulates—while still in the CEO's chair. Still, 54-year-old Light- body—a former amateur lacrosse player and 14-year BCLC veteran, appointed president and CEO on April 1—is optimistic about the future of gambling in B.C. and its ability to bring home the bacon for taxpayers. You spent 16 years in the pack- aged goods industry—mar- keting laundry products for Procter & Gamble and selling confectionery for Nabob. What did you learn? The one thing those organiza- tions recognized was the value Jim Lightbody T h e C o n v e r s a t i o n the British columbia Lottery corporation's new boss on the future of gambling in this province–and how lottery tickets are like laundry detergent by Matt O'Grady of diversified businesses and dif- ferentiated brands. That's also what we're trying to do at BCLC: make sure we have a diversi- fied lineup of businesses and products. Our lottery business is really akin to consumer pack- aged goods. The principles are the same—on advertising and promotion, on ensuring that your product is well-distributed, on introducing new products to stay at the forefront. With PlayNow.com, our e-gaming business, we have a one-to-one relationship with consumers and sell directly to them. And with casinos we've adopted the franchise model—determin- ing where the properties are going and what they're going to be, and then letting private operators—Great Canadian Gaming, Paragon or Gateway Casinos—buy the land, build the building and provide the staff. Still, there are differ- ences between your former work and what you're doing now. For one thing, there's a rather unique dual mission at BCLC: deliver profits to the government but also manage the social fallout of gambling. How do you manage those competing objectives? For the people who are going to choose to play our product, we have to ensure that they are mak- ing that choice in an informed manner. We look at it as more of a communications challenge: inform people about the odds, about tips for how to play—and on how they can recognize where they may be getting into some sort of trouble, so that they can really help themselves. Part of BCLC's recent success can be attributed to a sharp rise in the number of high rollers. With high rollers, however, comes the risk of organized crime. How real a problem is that, and what are you doing about it? Keeping our properties safe is at the top of our agenda. THe criminal elemenT there are currently people banned from entering B.C. casinos, thanks to a list of criminals provided by B.C. law en- forcement agencies to the BClC SOurcE: BcLc 102

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