2025 Safer Play Program Data Impacts Report

Lottery’s overarching program goal is to leverage and support responsible and problem gambling community relationships and to advance the promotion of safer play (RG) strategies and resource utilization.

Lottery devotes funding and resources where they will have the most positive impact on the promotion of safer play and creating awareness of resources and how to access them. We focus on:

• Providing information and tools to help players recognize that gambling is an activity that carries risk and to help them develop and utilize safer play strategies that enable them to enjoy Lottery games as entertainment.
• Expanding outreach and resources to reach and engage more players at more points in their help-seeking journey. We work with system providers to align on messaging, resource and tool development, and community engagement.
• Creating awareness of resources and counseling services for those impacted by their own or someone else’s gambling. We aim to ensure that people know how to access help, and that they understand it’s free, confidential, and that it works.

Code of Practice

The Responsible Gaming Code of Practice commits the Lottery to implement programs focused on research, as well as employee, stakeholder, and retailer engagement.  It also addresses player education, retail & online gaming, treatment & referral resources, and advertising & promotion.

As part of Lottery’s enterprise strategic plan, the Safer Play Program establishes annual key performance metrics that align with agency goals and our commitments in the Code of Practice. These metrics help us determine the effectiveness of our efforts, identify trends, and foster continuous improvement. Key metrics include:

Brand Promise: Lottery conducts annual research to determine how Oregonians feel about Lottery’s commitment to delivering on our brand promise of promoting safer play strategies and resource utilization. We also measure awareness of available tools and resources.

Marketing & Advertising: Lottery implements “always-on” marketing programing to ensure a constant drumbeat of relevant Safer Play messaging and outreach. Annual marketing metrics include both outputs and outcomes. Output metrics include things like site/app visits generated by advertising. Outcome metrics look at engagements like tool utilization or connecting customers with help.

Oregon Lottery Employee & Retailer Staff Training: Annually Lottery conducts required retailer and employee training. Like other metrics, we look at both outputs – how many were trained, and outcomes – what did they learn.

Tools & Resources Awareness

A third of Oregonians and over four-in-ten Players continue to be aware of and express interest in responsible gaming tools and information.

Source #1

Annual Metrics: Marketing & Advertising

Annually, Lottery deploys a strategic “always on” advertising schedule with the goal of connecting people to information, tools, and help. Robust content is available on the Oregon Problem Gambling Resource website, and we utilize targeted digital, keyword, print, social, out of home and other media to drive Oregonians to the site.

OPGR.org offers many options for connecting visitors to help, including phone, chat, and text. Advertising always tests and promotes calls to action that will drive engagement with the site and its tools and resources.

Engagement and Media Conversion

The goal of advertising and marketing outreach is engagement. It is not enough to get people to visit the site (site sessions); we need them to engage and take an action (conversion). In 2024, we continued to refine our messaging and media targeting, adding more engagement options and became even more efficient with budget and more effective in conversions.

Source #2

Annual Metrics: Training

The Oregon Lottery provides annual safer play training to Lottery Retailer staff and to all Oregon Lottery employees. Pre- and post- surveys are included in the training modules to gauge the efficacy of the training and to foster continuous improvement.

New Self-Help Tools

A key outcome from the Affected Other Research piloting the promotion of GamFin. Oregon Lottery and Oregon Health Authority began providing information and easy access to financial counseling services available through GamFin.  Individuals and families were connected with financial counselors 1-on-1 for personalized guidance on how to handle financial issues.

Marketing Campaigns & Content

Lottery continues to use insights from research to develop engaging relevant content for both marketing campaigns and OPGR.org. In 2025 we added new videos for affected others, and a new approach promoting counseling as self-care.

• Counseling for Affected Others
• Counseling as Self-Care 
• Welcome to OPGR

New VLT Attract Screens

Lottery identified an opportunity to incorporate Safer Play messaging on newer model Video Lottery Terminal attract screens. Some of the attract screen messages included a QR code for easy access to OPGR.org.

Organizational and Individual Awards & Recognition

Each year, NCPG honors individuals and organizations from around the world for their work on problem and responsible gambling. Nominations are scored based on an organization’s ability to meet the outlined criteria and the effectiveness and execution of the work completed. Nominations are not compared or judged against each other but are evaluated solely based on their own merit.

The Oregon Lottery won four top awards at the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) 2025 National Conference held in Columbus, Ohio, in July 2025.

The awards recognize the Oregon Lottery’s significant impact on responsible gambling awareness and initiatives. The specific awards earned were:

1. Corporate Social Responsibility Award for the Oregon Lottery’s overall program.
2. Corporate Public Awareness Award for its “Safer Play” Public Service Announcement (PSA) campaign.
3. Corporate Multicultural Communications Award for its multicultural digital/print media marketing campaign.
4. Don Feeney Award for Responsible Gambling Excellence, an individual honor presented to Stacy Shaw.

WLA Certification Level 4

The World Lottery Association (WLA) Level Four certification is the highest level of responsible gaming certification recognized internationally. In 2026, Oregon Lottery received Level 4 Certification for the 3^rd time.

Level 4 certification by the WLA recognizes the Oregon Lottery’s best-in-class Safer Play gambling programs and the commitment that Safer Play (RG) is deeply embedded in every aspect of the business.

The WLA certification highlights a lottery organization’s strong dedication to:

• Player protection: Implementing measures to safeguard players from the potential negative impacts of gambling.
• Ethical gaming practices: Promoting fair and ethical conduct in all aspects of lottery operations.
• Social responsibility: Operating in a socially responsible manner that contributes positively to the community.
• Continuous improvement: Regularly evaluating and enhancing their responsible gaming programs.

The Oregon Lottery is an associate member of the World Lottery Association (WLA) and currently holds the highest level of certification at level 4. WLA’s values are based on a commitment to the highest standards of corporate responsibility and are based on WLA Responsible Gaming Principles and Framework.

The Oregon Lottery is currently a Gold Member of the National Council on Problem Gambling and actively holds positions on various committees. Organizational membership is for corporations, government agencies and nonprofits that are concerned corporate citizens who help to sustain NCPG’s programs.

The Oregon Council on Problem Gambling (OCPG) is the state affiliate to the National Council on Problem Gambling. The OCPG’s purpose is to promote the health of Oregonians by supporting efforts to minimize gambling related harm. The Oregon Lottery holds a position on the board of directors along with other interested parties and stakeholders from the gaming industry, treatment and prevention field, the recovery community and state and county administrators.

The Oregon Lottery is an Associate Member of the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL). Currently, Oregon holds “Sustaining” level certification through NASPL and NCPG which is the highest level available. NASPL’s mission is to assemble and disseminate information and benefits of state and provincial lottery organizations through education and communications and, where appropriate, publicly advocate the positions of NASPL on matters of general policy.

The Oregon Lottery holds a board member seat on the Responsible Gambling Council of Canada (RGC). RGC exists to ensure that gambling safeguards are in place, to promote the wellbeing of people and communities They have been a leader in the prevention of problem gambling in Canada and globally for 40+ years.