Within the gaming industry are the wielders of immense power and control who get to decide who gets to run a lottery, how they will run the lottery, and what rules and regulations must be followed to continue to operate the lottery.
Gambling regulators
Gambling regulators (also called Gaming Commissions) ensure the lottery operator carries out the lotteries in an ethical and honest fashion for the benefit of the gaming public, charitable benefactors, and both the regulator and operator.
The regulator is the sole authority whose responsibilities and obligations are central to the trust and benefit of the gaming public.
Some of these duties and responsibilities include licencing every operator, employee, and supplier that works in or for the gaming industry.
Vetting and licencing helps to ensure that anyone involved in lotteries, casinos, and other aspects of the industry are trustworthy, at a low-risk of theft, bribery, or placed in a position of being forced or blackmailed to commit an offence, and are not susceptible to criminal behaviour or the potential for it.
Regulators oversee the entire gaming operations of not only lotteries but of casinos, racetrack slots, bingo halls, charitable draws and contests, and any other type of game of chance.
They keep the gaming industry honest and in high integrity by ensuring that all gambling is conducted in an open, honest, and fair way.
They create and enforce the rules and regulation that operators must follow.
Operations and equipment.
Regulators also approved, deny, or request changes to any proposal of the implementation, change, or decommissioning submitted by operators pertaining to gaming operations or gaming equipment.
They investigate all cases of real or perceived accidental, intentional, mechanical, or electronic mistakes, errors, tampering, cheating, or fraud, or other actions that may influence the operation or outcome of games.
Some investigations may involve:
- Inspection of malfunctioning or suspicious lottery sales terminals
- Investigation of retailer suspicious retailer activities
- Authentication of winning tickets and investigation into suspicious tickets redeemed for payment
- Internal investigations of employees of and suppliers to the operator, or employees of the regulator, in response to all edged or observed actions which may place suspicion upon those individuals or teams, or the work that they done or are doing
- Assisting law enforcement in the investigation and prosecution of the above individuals or in their activities of cheating or money laundering
Intengrity
One very important aspect of their duty is to exercise due diligence to ensure that any gaming activity, operation, advertising, or marketing is never targeted towards or available to minors, and that all gambling is kept from being a device or profit of any type of criminal activity, be it cheating or money laundering.
Every single stakeholder in the entire chain of running or playing a lottery should be able to trust and believe that lotteries are being run honestly and with full intengrity.
IAGR
To make sure this is accomplished, many gaming operators across the planet are members of The International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR) whose mission is to advance both the efficiency and effectiveness of gaming regulation.
Gaming operators from around the globe come together to exchange views and information, and discuss policy issues among themselves and with other people of the international gaming industry.
It also fosters cooperation between gaming regulators for standardization in gaming regulation and gaming enforcement.
NAGRA
In North America, many regulators belong to NAGRA, the North American Gaming Regulators Association, a non-profit professional association for the mutual exchange of regulatory information and techniques. Collecting and disseminating regulatory and enforcement information, procedures, and experience strives to develop a standard for legislation and rules concerning gaming activities.
Running and playing the lottery is about trust. Trust that the operator is running the lottery honestly and trust that the regulator is enforcing the gaming regulations.
This is the only way that players can be sure that the lottery ticket they have purchased actually gives the opportunity to legitimately win a prize and legitimately collect it.