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Dissected and Re-Assembled - An Analysis of Gaming Jean-Marc Lafaille & Guy Simonis
Review By Glenn Barry of McCallum Consultants gbarry@sydney.net.
No, they are not body snatchers starring in a remake of a Frankenstein
movie despite the banner name of this book - rather two long term gaming
industry executives looking back over their careers and experiences and
what that might mean for the current state and future of the gaming
industry.
The book is chatty in style and avoids bogging down with the much
repeated history of gambling and lotteries and the underlaying
mathematics of gaming. The book cover a lot of ground and issues and is
more an overview of the current and future state of the gaming industry
rather than another \"history of lotteries\". This book contains
information you can use now and cause you to think about the immediate
future. While the points made by the authors in this \'industry insider\'
reader\'s opinion are sound they may leave other readers not from the
industry seeking a more detailed background to how the authors reached
some of the conclusions they have. Apart from a somewhat jarring use of the words of Herbert Spencer
\"survival of the_ fittest\" in a Social Darwinian sense never intended by Charles Darwin
or Alfred Russel Wallace the co-discoverer of \"natural selection\" in the introduction the book, the authors soon
settle into the area of expertise they are clearly more familiar with.
There is a sound attempt in the early chapters to arrive at a modern
classification of the different forms that gambling/gaming/betting that
leads on the a table the authors refer to as \"The Lafaille/Simonis Game
Grid\" which features as a summary in a fold out back cover of the book.
The authors also make a very strong case that technology and changing
market trends has led to a level of convergence of games making it
increasingly difficult to define what is a lottery and what is not.
Found myself nodding in agreement page after page in section III of the
book when the authors discuss who are and what are the motivations of
the players. I know many who would have benefited from reading this
section before embarking on game start ups with badly designed lottery
game not in tune with the market.
In Section IV I particularly agree with (page 132) the issue of
\"inflated jackpots\" and the speculation that USA lotteries may have done
themselves more harm than good with this method of promoting prizes as
including yet to be earned interest as if it was the net present value
of the prize. This point is reinforced on page 135 where the stability
of long term revenue in European is compared with the USA experience.On
page 138 I agree totally with the authors views on TV lottery/game shows
and their comments may bring a wry grin to many in the industry.
The authors government lottery management background comes though
repeatedly throughout the book and parts of the book on the question of
monopoly government corporations and their views might annoy private
gaming and lottery management and Internet operators based on small
islands in the Caribbean. The authors broadly favor the \'natural
monopoly\" theory and the need for social impact control by a
responsible government. It is also clear the authors are concerned about
a future where a laissez-faire approach to gaming results in chaos and
revulsion by the voting public. Examples are given where the \"wide open\"
approach has ended up neither benefiting the operators or the
governments who have licensed them. The underlying theme that comes
through in this book is a clear warning that too much gambling of the
wrong type is no good for the public and in the long term, for the
gaming industry.
A few small errors have crept in here and there in the first edition, on
page 34 para 2 \"sports games such as lotto\" has either the word
\"sports\", where it should not be or the authors intended to refer to
\"Toto\" rather than \"Lotto\". On page 130 under \"Size of
Pick-Your-Own-Numbers Games\" the probability of 3 from 6 from 36 being
shown as 1 in 267 rather than 1 in 24 and while the calculation 3 from 6
from 36 at 1 in 57 is correct it makes for a confusing paragraph wherein
it says the probability in the 3/6/49 is a lot better than 3/6/36.
Nor does the book explore the need for different size economies and
developing countries to structure lotteries and revenue break ups to
suit their economy reality where often they are buying equipment
management and materials at first world prices but selling at 3rd world
prices. Far too many developing country lotteries and lottery operators
have failed as a result of copying 1st world taxes and operating
margins, but I guess in 177 pages you can\'t cover everything.
This book should be of interest and useful to, and in the reference
library, of anyone or any organization with the slightest interest in
what really makes the gaming industry tick. People new to the industry
will definitely benefit from reading the book a couple of times at
least. Rating - Six Right. =====
Reviewer Glenn Barry MFL is a 32 year veteran in lottery management with
experience in Australia, USA, Asia, Africa and Europe.
Rating:  [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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