A Conversation With Scott Gunn

Brightstar Lottery’s new chief of operations discusses the role of people-power in lottery success.

By Brightstar

Published September 9, 2025

In July of this year, Scott Gunn was named Chief Operating Officer, North American Lottery at Brightstar Lottery (formerly IGT Lottery). Prior to this role, he served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Public Affairs, responsible for Brightstar’s global government affairs strategy and public policy. He started with the company in 1994, and has held positions in operations, sales, business development, and government relations.

Here, Scott discusses his outlook on the industry and goals on behalf of Brightstar’s customers.

Q. As you transition to leading operations, what observations and experiences will you apply in your new role to support Brightstar’s customers?

People in the industry might know me through my work in public affairs and government relations in various roles since 2009, but I think the most formative part of my career at our company was actually in the decade that preceded that, from 1999 to 2009. During that time, I first spent a couple of years in Texas, working alongside the customer and my colleagues there to more deeply understand lottery operations during the most expansive provision of services to a customer in the U.S. at the time.

From Texas, I moved on to California, where I was the general manager and then the regional vice president of what was then GTECH California. It was probably one of the most gratifying jobs I’ve held with the company, because I had ongoing exposure to people at every level of our customer’s organization and our own, and I was responsible for the provision of services across the board. There was no challenge or opportunity too small or too large; everything had equal weighting. We would move mountains, get any resources required, call all the people we needed to. It was about doing what was right for the customer to support their success.

In that role, I received so much feedback on an ongoing basis that I always had a current understanding of what needed to be done to help customers achieve their goals. It was challenging and extremely gratifying to work with very smart and experienced people in the customer’s organization and our own, supporting a huge, dynamic, successful lottery. The people in both organizations were the keys to success over the long term − building those relationships and working closely together through the good times as well as the challenging ones.

In retrospect, as we sit here in 2025, that general management role really was super formative for me. It migrated into responsibility for our customer accounts in the western region of the U.S., still taking that same approach with a larger client portfolio. It was incredibly important to see the entire stem-to-stern operation to understand each customer’s perspective and what each customer needed; to be away from the corporate office and be among our customers’ teams and our employees at the site focused every day on the lottery’s activities.

It’s that connection with our customers across their entire business that I’m looking forward to resuming − beyond the context they’ve known me in for the past decade.

Q. How are you approaching your new role to ensure that Brightstar’s resources, products, and services support the diverse and unique needs of Lottery customers?

Again, it starts with the people. Having the right leadership team in place to move forward and serve customers in this new chapter as Brightstar was essential and critical to me as I was taking on this role, so that’s what I focused on first and foremost.

We have announced a number of recent appointments, including Matt Cedor as head of North American Operations, and Joe Lapinski and Adam Perlow as regional vice presidents. These experienced leaders have a deep understanding of Brightstar customers and the industry, and they have been deployed in the field in complex accounts where they have successfully implemented innovations large and small in support of a lottery’s objectives. I will be working closely with them and all our company’s internal service providers to ensure that our products and services are delivered in a way that is supportive of each customer’s business objectives.

When we announced our transition to Brightstar and I was speaking to our internal teams (shown above), what I emphasized is that I want our teams to be accountable to each other as we work to support customers with a can-do and a must-do attitude. I see it as our responsibility to meet our customers where they are. We appreciate that lotteries operate in a very complex and visible environment within their state governments, and we remain sensitive to the fact that they are delivering a fun and entertaining product in an environment where policy makers may not agree on aspects of how that should occur. We need to know how something hits in their state capital because, as my kids say, “it doesn’t all hit the same.” Our aim is to be supportive and understanding of the complicated environment in which lotteries operate, and present them with options that allow them, when they have the opportunity, to implement innovative ideas.

The importance of the customers’ perspective extends to areas like product development. For several years now, we have brought the prototypes for a number of important new products to trade shows to get customers’ feedback and listen to their suggestions. Customers have now seen those products come to the market with their feedback incorporated.

Similarly, we have strong partnerships in the retail space to help ensure that our products and solutions meet evolving needs in the context of retail and distribution.

Another example is the work that Brightstar does alongside the industry’s Powerball and Mega Millions groups, working with them and our customers to evaluate what sort of changes to make to the games and to customers’ portfolios. We bring all the resources of our company to support this work on an ongoing basis, to try to get the best answer and result possible for lotteries.

In all of this, I don’t lose sight of the fact that our industry is about fun. I love conferences and trade shows. I love spending time with customers and being immersed in the fun and creative work they do on behalf of their beneficiaries.

Q. The increasingly competitive business environment for U.S. lotteries isn’t limited to iGaming and Sports, but includes others that are seeking to disrupt or operate in the lottery space. Given your previous role as SVP Corporate Public Affairs, how can Brightstar support lotteries in this context?

Competition has always existed for players’ and consumers’ attention. On the one hand, it’s a familiar environment that we all operate in, but on the other hand, it looks a little different now, right?

The gaming market is evolving, and lotteries will need to find their place within it and within their individual jurisdiction. It’s our job to support customers in doing so and be smart and innovative in the products, solutions, and services that we offer to keep lottery relevant in this evolving gaming space. It’s also incumbent upon us to work with our customers to ensure we’re being supportive in their markets, assisting them, and, to the extent that it’s necessary, educating policymakers and other stakeholders relative to what makes sense in that jurisdiction.

I’m very fortunate that my longtime colleague Mike Mello will lead Brightstar’s global public affairs group. His years of experience, and the expertise that he and his team bring in government relations and public-affairs strategies, will continue to provide valuable ongoing support to customer jurisdictions in the U.S. and around the world. 

Q. How is Brightstar demonstrating its commitment to customers through innovation?

At the industry conferences this year, you’re going to see the most recent evidence of our lottery-focused investments. This includes solutions to help lotteries expand their sales channels, like our new GameFlex 48 lottery vending machine, with the largest capacity in the industry, which is ready to order and heading into a field pilot in the coming months; and LotteryLink™, our new solution to enable and expand in-lane sales with a small device that integrates seamlessly with a retailer’s existing point-of-sale system. Visitors to our booth will have the chance to experience some advanced AI demos and provide feedback that will help to shape our product roadmaps. We are also expanding in critical areas like iLottery, including the introduction of Brightstar’s first AI-developed eInstant game, Viking Gold. And we’re excited to show our customers some new prototypes, including our next-generation self-service draw-game kiosk and an in-lane digital menu board solution. Our priority is empowering lotteries to serve their players better and achieve even greater success.

Q. Can you shed light on Brightstar’s stance on couriers and other potential disruptors?

As an industry leader, we’re looking at how to serve appropriately with respect to these nontraditional, emerging parts of the marketplace that are relevant to lottery. We’re trying to determine what appropriate role there is for us to play and that will bring the Brightstar level of security, integrity, and efficiency to bear. We understand the regulated environment. We operate in two jurisdictions where couriers are regulated. We see it as our responsibility to not only securely and efficiently operate with integrity within that space but also improve it for the benefit of the industry and be sensitive to the environment that exists in each jurisdiction.

Q. What personally informs your perspective at this stage of your life and career?

People who know me and have worked with me have heard me talk about the fact that I have four daughters − two of whom have entered the professional world, one who’s in college, and one who’s applying to college. I want them to have every opportunity that’s afforded to everyone else. And it has caused me, not just at this stage in my career but throughout the different roles I’ve had, to try to ensure that the work environment is sensitive to everyone’s needs. I’m passionate about this, and it’s where I’m engaged as an executive co-sponsor of one of Brightstar’s employee interest groups, our Women’s Inclusion Network. When I think about the work environment, it’s incredibly important to me that we ensure that there is a structure to support all employees in their journey. By supporting all of our employees, we bring out the very best in our entire business, from quality service and delivery to innovation. These are the qualities that separate us from our competition and drive customer satisfaction across the board. As I stated earlier, it starts with people.