La Fleur’s Magazine’s new series—Quote of the Week—features interviews with lottery directors about what’s ahead for their organizations in fiscal 2022. We will feature a different director each week. This week we are spotlighting Barry Pack, Director, Oregon Lottery.
What’s ahead for your lottery in FY22?
“Our focus over the next year or two is on sustainability and relevancy to get more people playing responsibly. While our progress toward digital sales is paused by policymakers, we’re focused on maintaining our core lines of business while tuning into the experiences of our key stakeholders: our players, our employees and our retailers. I’m also personally committed to improving our government-to-government relations with Oregon’s nine federally recognized Tribes. The Oregon Lottery is adopting a formal Tribal consultation policy and I am actively engaged in building better diplomatic relations with the Tribes. My goal is to move us from a strictly competitive posture to one of co-opetition. It’s an exciting challenge!”
What book are you currently reading?
“I’m a fan of sci-fi/fantasy novels (what the industry now calls ‘speculative fiction’), and have been reading a lot of books by women authors of color the last couple of years. Right now, I’m reading Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge. It’s a novel based in the fictional city of Yong’an, China, where ‘beasts’ and humans co-exist side-by-side. The narrator is a young female cryptozoologist and the book is essentially a bestiary of species that live in the shadows and in plain sight of this fictional urban city. It’s a fun read that does a great job raising questions about the nature of “others” in a modern, urban environment.”
Where do you plan to vacation in the next six months?
“We have a place in Puerto Vallarta that is our usual retreat away from the Oregon weather. I haven’t spent much time there since COVID hit, so I’m looking forward to returning to more regular visits. Long term, India and Southeast Asia are definitely on my bucket list. I had planned on a trip to Japan in 2020 with a friend, and we’re working on figuring out when it will feel safe to get that on the calendar again and when I might have time to continue the planning.”