Brightstar opens renovated Lotto draw hall in Milan

Brightstar Lottery inaugurated a renovated Lotto draw hall in Milan on 20 October. The opening forms part of the innovation programme begun under the new Lotto concession. Representatives of the Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli and the Federazione Italiana Tabaccai were among those due to attend the ceremony.

The Milan site covers about 200 square metres and includes a dedicated technical control room, a test room and specialised spaces supporting operational activities. It is designed to house the technology for draw operations and audiovisual production. The hall can take over the entire draw operation if needed, which the report says supports continuity, security and resilience of the service.

The Milan work is part of a renewal programme covering the Lotto draw system, including the halls in Rome and Naples. Three halls were renovated and twelve automated draw machines updated. The Venus MKII machines retain physical draws with spheres, a feature the report describes as a guarantee of transparency for players, and add digital systems showing the drawn numbers, wheels and information content in real time.

Under the same programme, about 300,000 devices were replaced across the 35,000 retail points of the Lotto network in less than eight months, four months ahead of the original plan, according to the report. The technology infrastructure was also renewed through a Private Cloud architecture spanning two regions, Rome and Milan, with three data centres each.

Alessandro Paciucci, SVP Italy Lottery Operations at Brightstar, said the Milan hall was more than a technology space and represented the transformation path begun with the new concession. He said the company had created a modern, secure and resilient environment and that in Brightstar innovation was a matter of people, skills, passion and a culture of continuous improvement, as much as technology.

The event also covered product changes and the Nuova Smorfia. Fai 3 and Fai 4 were introduced in March with draws every 30 minutes and, after about six months of testing, moved from 30 September to draws every five minutes. The Nuova Smorfia keeps the ninety numbers and the ability to turn dreams, emotions and everyday episodes into symbols and numbers, renewing their meanings, images, language and editorial treatment, the report said.