Vice President of Retail Innovation & Partnerships
IGT – Texas

Paul Riley is IGT’s Vice President of Retail Innovation & Partnerships and a key member of the NASPL API Committee. In these roles, he plays a leading role in the development and implementation of innovative retail solutions for the industry. For more than 30 years, Paul has led the development of lottery terminals and systems and in recent years has focused on the development of retail solutions that simplify lottery offering at retail.
Since 2018, Paul has led the collaborative effort in Texas to develop and implement multiple in-lane solutions using the NASPL API. Delivering new and innovative solutions is always challenging, but the number of participants involved in Texas made for an especially complex process. Paul coordinated the activities of not only the lottery and IGT, but also third-party processors, ticket printers, MUSL, and retailers.
In 2019, Paul played a key role as the Texas Lottery implemented its first in-lane products: Quick Ticket, Receipt Ticket, and ticket validations. All three products leveraged the NASPL API, made Powerball and Mega Millions more available to players, and in the case of validations, significantly reduced retailer labor and overhead associated with lottery products. Most importantly, these implementations proved the delivery of lottery via retail POS was possible and clarified the obstacles to overcome to expand beyond these implementations.
Recently, Paul has been instrumental in several key initiatives in Texas that have been spawned from the experience gained from those first in-lane implementations.
In December 2023, ticket by ticket activation was successfully piloted by the grocery store H-E-B, eliminating the liability risk associated with traditional pack activations where deployed. This spring, IGT piloted LotteryLink in Texas, allowing the retailer to implement in-lane functionality without technical integration to their back office system.
Paul has also led the multivendor effort to develop a new scratch ticket barcode – the Code 128 Barcode. This barcode specification uses a symbology that is widely recognized and utilized in retail today. The barcode makes the game, pack and ticket number from a scratch ticket readable by most retail devices and makes ticket sales and activation possible with a single barcode scan. Texas will implement the central system and terminal capability later this year, making it possible to transition to begin producing games with the new barcode in 2025.
Paul is a patient but relentless advocate of change, leading to success on all of these initiatives. He is fantastic at keeping everyone engaged, updated and progressing forward, which is necessary in the in-lane space. Because of his exceptional job performance in these areas, Paul is an excellent nominee for the NASPL Powers Award.