When Stacy Shaw joined the Oregon Lottery 13 years ago to lead the marketing team, winning awards for Responsible Gambling (RG) initiatives was not in her career plans. A veteran of the ad agency world and the former head of marketing for Hyatt, Shaw did not arrive with a public health or counseling background. Yet today she is one of the industry’s most recognized voices: recipient of the Don Feeney Award for Responsible Gambling Excellence in July 2025 and was the first person from the United States to serve as a board member on Canada’s Responsible Gambling Council. Her path offers a practical blueprint for lottery leaders: embed player protection into the core business, not the margins.

“Our mission is to maximize revenue commensurate with the public good,” Shaw says. “Those can feel at odds. But I firmly believe this is about being a good businessperson as much as being a good person. Do the right thing, and you’re doing good business.”

That mindset drove Oregon’s shift from “RG ads” to an enterprise-wide Safer Play program. What began in 2014 as a code of practice—developed in collaboration with consultants, researchers, legislators, and the Oregon Health Authority (OHA)—was embedded into Oregon Statute and matured into a comprehensive system that encompasses products, marketing, retailer training, staff development, and community partnerships.

“We didn’t just run ads,” Shaw says. “We trained retailers and staff, engaged stakeholders, and participated in the community. We told our story—and did more—so people could feel the difference.” The results are structural, not cosmetic. Oregon publishes an annual Safer Play Impacts Report; the Lottery is WLA Level 4 certified and a Sustainer in NCPG’s Responsible Gambling Verification. Most importantly, Shaw’s team co-designs solutions with OHA. One meaningful change is immediate access to financial counseling for people affected by someone else’s gambling—no treatment intake required. “We market what the system can support,” Shaw explains. “OHA modified processes so people could get help right away.”

That same business-first lens guided Oregon’s online sports-betting launch in 2019. Shaw led the go-to-market strategy and insisted on including and normalizing protective tools from day one. “When you signed up, you had to set a deposit limit to activate your account,” she says. “We wanted the conversation to start there.” The state also set a 21+ bar even when some jurisdictions opted for 18, and integrated self-exclusion, max bet, and limit-setting. The payoff has been sustained tool utilization. Later, as DraftKings became Oregon’s platform partner, Shaw applauded features like My Stat Sheet, which helps players see spend, wins, and losses—useful for everyone, grounded in Safer Play principles.

Over the last three years, Oregon also undertook a stigma-reduction initiative that rewired words across ads, web, and training. “The greatest barrier to getting help is stigma,” Shaw says. The Lottery replaced “treatment” with “counseling,” avoided labels like “gamblers” or “addicts,” and published inclusive language guidelines that OHA cross walked into its own system. “Safer acknowledges risk, which is inherent to gambling; Play affirms it should be fun,” Shaw notes. “We don’t hide that many people enjoy gaming without issue. We focus on choice, moderation, and change.”

Oregon decisively aligned words with tools. The Lottery and OHA were among the first to offer Evive, a first-of-its-kind digital health app that helps users quit or moderate gambling and practice safer play—no counseling registration is required. “Some organizations change what they say but not what they offer,” Shaw says. “We wanted both.”

Finally, Shaw’s team has also improved their relationship with retailers. Beyond contractual basics (signage, no underage play), Oregon provides role-specific training—convenience versus video lottery sites, in-language modules, and practical scripts to address myths and guide customers to help. Staff receive self-care training, too. “Frontline people see a lot,” Shaw says. “We want them to care for customers and themselves.” Self-care options for retailers are now in development.

Lessons from Oregon

Beyond her individual honor, Oregon won multiple NCPG awards this year, a validation Shaw values because it “recognizes our whole team.” For executives looking to emulate Oregon’s success, Shaw’s has few recommendations. First, and most transferable, is to examine organizational design. “If you have two people with ‘RG’ in their titles sitting off to the side, it will always be an add-on,” she warns. “Integrate it into the organization’s strategic objectives—call it integrity or sustainability if you must—but treat it as foundational.”

Then Shaw encourages lotteries to reject the notion that strong Safer Play suppresses sales. “There’s no indication it does,” she says. “It increases integrity and trust. If people don’t trust you, you won’t get the license to operate, or other people will tell you what to do and how to do it. Until Safer Play is as normal as gambling, the risk of problems—and low gambling literacy—stays higher. Normalize the advertising and weave Safer Play into it.

Her final advice to other lotteries: map the customer experience, including when someone is struggling. “We journey-mapped all of our products,” she says. “Why not map the help journey? Enhance the customer experience and direct people to where they need to be. That’s good for people—and it’s good business.”