The Lottery chain of retailers has suffered a lot from an unstable and a slow system. Against this backdrop, ALSPI (National Association of Lottery Entrepreneurs), on its own initiative, decided to launch a field survey. A job that, in my view, in addition to being very accurate and necessary, was very well done and managed to scale the size of this problem in Brazil with property.
More specifically, I can inform that this is a work focused on SISPL (Payment and Lottery System), a system that currently works at the Lottery Terminal (TFL - Financial and Lottery Terminal). A system that was born in the mid-90s when CAIXA ECONÔMICA FEDERAL took over all the processing of transactions carried out in lotteries, transactions that, at the time, were almost exclusively focused on games. Before that, all processing was performed by software contracted and developed by third parties.
It is important to note that both the instability and the performance of the SISPL have not arisen now, they are old problems that have only worsened over time. I believe that the cause and aggravation of these SISPL problems is due to the number of features added to a system that, when conceived, was not designed to perform so many additional functions, such as: withdrawals, deposits, benefit payments, billet receipts, consumption bills, among others.
Recently, CEF started a process of renovation of the entire installed park, more specifically the exchange of TFLs for new, safer and modern equipment, an action that solves many important problems of the network, such as the high level of maintenance and changes of peripherals, and this is certainly very good! But that is not what is at stake here. I do not believe that the replacement of the equipment will solve the issue of instability and may not significantly improve the performance of the transactions processed in the current SISPL, whose performance depends much more on the data link, on the centralized processing in the matrix and on the SISPL itself, than the equipment installed in the lotteries stores.
The research data collection was carried out between August 12 and 20, with the participation of 24 States + DF, bringing to light a true national diagnosis of these problems.
The result of this research shows very interesting data, of which I highlight:
- The participation of + 14% of Lottery retailers in Brazil, with an emphasis on participation in the Southeast region with 20%.
- The responding Lottery retailers hold almost 8,000 TFLs (approx .: 18% of the installed park).
- The Best Satisfaction Index, with 51%, was "Game Processing" (Function for which SISPL was originally designed. Is it a coincidence?).
- The Worst Satisfaction Index had two items (technically tied) "Payment of Boletos" and "Withdrawals and Deposits".
- 56% of Lottery retailers reported having Fault / Instability problems every day. And 88% up to 3x in the week.
- 92% of ULs have already had direct financial losses due to SISPL failures.
- Still with the focus on SISPL, the items "Training", "Communication", "Support", "Speed" and "Trust", 34% of the Network gave scores between 0 and 1. And 81% between 0 and 5. In this item, the positive highlight is "Confidence" which on average obtained a score of 4.2.
Finally, I emphasize that CAIXA ECONÔMICA FEDERAL, in the current management, is listening more to the Network and has faced these problems and that we are dealing with problems of very complex solutions. On the other hand, it is important to recognize that we are still below the minimum. There is still a lot to do!
And it is certainly worth investing in this market! After all, we are talking about a billionaire market (+ R$ 17 billion -US$3.15bn- in 2019, only games) and with incredible growth potential in the next 3-5 years.
* Marco Taurisano does not answer for ALSPI and does not represent it legally.
Marco Taurisano
Graduated in Mathematics and Statistics. Specialist and Lecturer in the Lottery Market and Entrepreneur with two StartUps also focused on the sector.
