Monthly Archives: February 2021

LONDON, Feb. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --International Game Technology PLC (IGT) (NYSE: IGT) announced that its subsidiary, IGT Mxico Lottery, S. de R.L. de C.V. ("IGT"), has extended its agreement with La Lotera Nacional para la Asistencia Pblica ("LOTENAL"), Mexico's national lottery, to continue providing an integrated draw-based/instant ticket system, draw-based lottery terminals, a communications network, and additional lottery products and ongoing services. The agreement, effective Dec. 20, 2020, extends IGT's contract with the lottery to March 2, 2022.

"For the Lotera Nacional, the extension of the contract with IGT contributes to the certainty and security that we offer to our clients in a year of great challenges for all of us, which has also been a year of transition and internal transformation,"saidMario Caballero Luna, LOTENAL Chief of Advisors.

"For more than three decades, IGT has provided our Lottery customer in Mexico with the expertise, technology, and services it has needed to generate results, which ultimately benefit social and health programs,"saidJay Gendron, IGT Chief Operating Officer, Lottery. "As LOTENAL navigates this transformational period, IGT's innovative, reliable, and proven technology will continue to be a key driver of its evolution."

IGT's ongoing services to LOTENAL include lottery game transactions and instant ticket distribution across 8,200 terminals nationwide. It also includes continuous development of new B2B retail channels; installation, repair, maintenance and monitoring of its total base of lottery terminals; retailer training; field service; call center operations and hotline management; a fixed-odds sports betting retail network; and marketing support to further enhance LOTENAL's overall product and game portfolio.

In 2019, LOTENAL merged with Mexico's Pronsticos para la Asistencia Pblicalottery, and the combined new organization retained the LOTENAL name.

For more information, visit igt.com. Follow IGT on Facebook at facebook.com/IGT, on Twitter at twitter.com/IGTnews, or watch IGT videos on YouTube at youtube.com/igt.

About IGTIGT (NYSE:IGT) is the global leader in gaming. We deliver entertaining and responsible gaming experiences for players across all channels and regulated segments, from Gaming Machines and Lotteries to Sports Betting and Digital. Leveraging a wealth of compelling content, substantial investment in innovation, player insights, operational expertise, and leading-edge technology, our solutions deliver unrivaled gaming experiences that engage players and drive growth. We have a well-established local presence and relationships with governments and regulators in more than 100 countries around the world, and create value by adhering to the highest standards of service, integrity, and responsibility. IGT has approximately 11,000 employees. For more information, please visit http://www.igt.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking StatementsThis news release may contain forward-looking statements (including within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) concerning International Game Technology PLC and its consolidated subsidiaries (the "Company") and other matters. These statements may discuss goals, intentions, and expectations as to future plans, trends, events, dividends, results of operations, or financial condition, or otherwise, based on current beliefs of the management of the Company as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, such management. Forward-looking statements may be accompanied by words such as "aim," "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "could," "would," "should," "shall", "continue," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "future," "guidance," "intend," "may," "will," "possible," "potential," "predict," "project" or the negative or other variations of them. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which such statements are made and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are outside the Company's control. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of the underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may differ materially from those predicted in the forward-looking statements and from past results, performance, or achievements. Therefore, you should not place undue reliance on such statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include (but are not limited to) the factors and risks described in the Company's annual report on Form 20-F for the financial year ended December31, 2019 and other documents filed from time to time with the SEC, which are available on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov and on the investor relations section of the Company's website at http://www.IGT.com. Except as required under applicable law, the Company does not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. You should carefully consider these factors and other risks and uncertainties that affect the Company's business. All forward-looking statements contained in this news release are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. All subsequent written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to International Game Technology PLC, or persons acting on its behalf, are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.

Contact:Phil O'Shaughnessy, Global Communications, toll free in U.S./Canada +1 (844) IGT-7452; outside U.S./Canada +1 (401) 392-7452Francesco Luti, +39 3485475493; for Italian media inquiriesJames Hurley, Investor Relations, +1 (401) 392-7190Rhonda Whittaker, Global Communications, +1 (506) 878-6471

2021 IGT

The trademarks and/or service marks used herein are either trademarks or registered trademarks of IGT, its affiliates or its licensors.

SOURCE International Game Technology PLC

http://www.igt.com

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IGT Drives Evolution of Lottery in Mexico through Extension of Full-Service Contract with LOTENAL - PRNewswire

Water drop on green leaf

Marcus Aureliusonce wrote Who we are and who we become depends, in part, on whom we love, and some would argue whom we love equally depends on who we are and who we want to become. Our relationship to the other is a function of who we are as we are a function of it.

The same is true for our ways of organizing. All organizations are a function of our being and relating to one another. Our fulfillment with those systems is a function of time. A home is a function of us, for example, a school, a business, a society. It is not until an act occurs within a given landscape, embodying the past and the future while defining the current human experience. Indeed, it is hard to miss detecting there are many worthwhile sustainable development opportunities for the current world in transition: Climate change, pandemic episodes, water resource crisis, the immediate need to reduce CO2emissions, human trafficking and income, gender, pay inequality, etc. The common denominator of all is our humanity and the longing to unleash any untapped potential.

One of the places we feel most the impacts of this seeking is the corporate world which has been changing rapidly over the last five to seven years. While digitalization, globalization and democratization have reshaped the labor landscape, some critical questions continue to beg their way out into freedom: What is a business? What does it mean for us to work under one roof? Who are we together?

Do you ever consider that the first pioneers of the Human Relations Movement took adequate time to think these kinds of questions through? Or do you presume they were merely some theorists of management history? Are the bureaucratic organizations we have witnessed develop and the manic environments we became part of, the experience they had intended for us? Do you feel they were carrying the spirit of progress during the industrial revolution? These are inquisitive questions that embody difficult and complex realities. In retrospect, when it comes to exercising pure foresight though, it seems irrational to have become attached to one theory in revolting. This is not for preference either, science would tell us sustainable revolt requires ideas to dance in the moonlight with a heart wide open.

Progress is never permanent, will always be threatened, must be redoubled, restated and reimagined if it is to survive,wrote Zadie Smith. Indeed, history shows us enlightenment that carries generations forward always requires a good mind and a heart together. A meaningful evolution of any organization at any time has always depended on its spiritual truth. The more applicable that truth becomes to human life, the more there is ground for a moral basis that can carry its constitutions to another reality.

So, what can we learn from the past that could serve future organizations?

For one, a future organization is centered around us, the individual, the human. Until we can imagine the kind of experiences, we want to be part of, we will continue being a victim to existing, disenfranchised realities. An organization can only be as strong as its weakest link. To be strong together calls for each of us to care. In other words, are we going to hold our space and claim our place or are we going to ride along andface the other way? Are we, for example, going to continue wanting to buy a shirt customized, for cheaper, delivered tomorrow while claiming for equal rights, opportunities and ecological sustainability? Are we going to want to work more efficiently, innovate to raise up our share and at the same time, resist to cooperate and collaborate with others on a daily basis?

Two, business needs to take a stance on who it is going to be, to support the making of a future organization Is business about money or purpose or is it about advancing human lives? Is a technology firm who knows of users harassing others going to keep silent because money keeps coming, or is it going to act to stop the issue? Is a hospital going to burn its employees wellbeing, overlooking their need to be a human, in the name of saving others lives? Is a manufacturer going to be proud of its product volume while relentlessly polluting the environment?

Three, leaders need to completely refurbish their system management practices from top to bottom. The workplace reports that keep listing reskilling, robotics, data and analytics is of little use here. Even with solid core philosophies in place, the majority of existing global organizations dont have the capability or capacity to capitalize on the kind of trends listed. To reskill or upskill, as an example, an organization would require an innovation hub that can foresee future capabilities and offer timely, relevant, contextual, adult experience journeys to activate sustained learning on a consistent basis. The majority dont have such structure, competency or resources to achieve this. To break current routines, rather focus on defining your organizations core needs, invite your people into the process of re-imagination. Better yet, hire a few poets, painters and designers. Formal hierarchies dont allow information to travel fast enough around the network, the authoritative power vested in top positions slows down decision making, jobs tightly defined get in front of mutual goal setting and dynamic teaming, behaviors of control ban development of speak-up and learning cultures, the extensive center of excellences become a bottleneck in process innovation.

Finally, no one no longer wants to work for a rank officer nor wants to be examined for past behavior. Reconsider promotion cycles look for mature individuals who progressed through adult development stages and have demonstrated self-efficacy. The fact is many generations of people have grown up in educational systems that have corrupted their minds into deep beliefs of scarcity, individualism, autocracy and grounded them in negative emotions such as guilt, fear, shame, etc. that drive negative behaviors. Yet, it is time we accept as long as those people continue to occupy the highest positions in politics, economics, the media and all of the rest of organizations, we will not showcase new transcendent values nor the role modeling ability to reconcile existing transcendent values in the way we do business.

Do you truly believe we are all equal under the sun? If so, perhaps that could mean deep down in the human essence, we all are part of some common greatness.

The future organization needs to respect the unique value seeded in each one of us and allow space to rediscover our joint greatness. As history would demand in the course of that evolution, it becomes necessary for us to dissolve existing patterns of connection and rewire to build a more beautiful net, together.

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The Symphony Of Evolution: Why We Need To Redesign Future Organizations With Conscience - Forbes

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Despite reference to the creator, this is arguably the most revolutionary secular sentence penned to parchment in the annals of humankind.

Most will immediately recognize the first sentence of the Declaration of Independence. The universality of the Founders prose has been embraced by throngs of peoples in disparate cultures for over two centuries. However, the aspirations manifest in this simple yet enormously powerful sentence are tragically still unrealized for many American citizens. Thankfully, our understanding of the meaning of this sentence, the remainder of the Declaration, and its offspring, the Constitution, has evolved.

That evolution is critically important to understand because it points us toward a better future. We will focus on merely two words in this sentence. Those two words are men and equal: what they meant then, and what they mean now. In so doing, we learn how a successful and arguably rapid revolution for the combative American colonists became a slow-moving, multi-generational, and tortuous evolution for the enslaved. Since it is Black History month, a closer look seems warranted.

Although there were several in the Continental Congress, who despised the very idea of slavery, they ultimately made a pact with the devil. The issue of Black bondage was placed on-the-back-burner in the interests of the future establishment of the worlds first constitutional democracy. By some estimates, the price of freedom from British oppression for the 13 colonies was the continued enslavement of nearly 150,000 persons.

That number eventually swelled to as many as 4,000,000 in the following 87 years until President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. The word men, then, clearly did not encompass those persons condemned to a cradle-to-grave miserable existence as property. Five thousand black men fought in George Washingtons army. The terrible irony is all too apparent.

Although finally corrected in the modern era, individual Black slaves were enshrined into the US Constitution as 3/5ths of a white man by the Electoral College. The often-repeated right-wing position that the Electoral College had nothing to do with slavery is absurd on its face. Despite its clearly racist leanings, the system did have the notable distinction of being the first in recorded human history to elect a national leader via a democratic process.

The Civil Wars arguable aim to set men free cost as many as 750,000 lives on both sides. Of those, 179,000 Black men wore Union blue, and 40,000 of that number died. Tragically, the conflict that was meant to bring freedom to those that most needed it, ultimately failed to deliver on its promise. The southern states eventually developed the outrageous Jim Crow laws that promulgated the heinous notion of separate but equal. The midnight lynching activities of the KKK were eventually burned into the national consciousness. Blacks were no longer slaves, but they were clearly not equal under the law either. Poll taxes and voter-ID laws all had the effect of suppressing the black vote. Slavery may have been outlawed, but obvious systemic racism was subsequently codified in jurisprudence. This clearly evolutionary change from slavery to second class citizen status was dreadful, falling far short of the stated objective of equal.

The long-time-in-coming 1964 Civil Rights Act corrected twisted law, making it illegal to discriminate against anyone because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, thus, ending the odious policy of segregation. That act is in many ways the crowning achievement of the American Civil Rights Movement that was led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This was yet another milestone in the evolution toward making the word equal mean what it says.

The election of Barack Obama to the presidency in 2008 raised another marker on the arduous road to becoming equal. The Founders perhaps understandably could not have imagined in their day a black man serving in the highest office in the land. One wonders why Mr. Obama could not have rightly been designated as white. He was after all, a child of white and black parents. Why, then, is he universally considered black? Is mere appearance the ultimate qualifier? If so, why?

Several years ago, I taught U.S. History to undergraduate college students. They often concluded that the Founders were men of their times: that they were flawed, as we all are. Clearly, a significant number of these mens understanding of equal in 1776 did not include those persons then enslaved. Thankfully, our society has matured in the right direction.

Despite these failings, the aspirational words of both the Declaration of Independence and Constitution have stood the test of time and now rightly and legally include all peoples regardless, of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Are we there yet? Not hardly.

Once the coronavirus has been defeated, the Biden/Harris Administration faces still daunting challenges in this arena. As is often the case, the armed forces will lead the way by removing the names of Confederate generals from military bases across our country. We should also applaud the recent confirmation of Lloyd Austin to the post of Secretary of Defense: the first Black person in history to serve in that critically important Cabinet post. The great orator, abolitionist, and author, Frederick Douglass, perceived the Constitution as a glorious liberty document. But only the long tortuous evolution has made his words ring true today.

Robert Bruce Adolph is the author of the new book, Surviving the United Nations: The Unexpected Challenge. He is a former senior Army Special Forces soldier and United Nations security chief. He has lived and worked in 15 different countries on four continents.

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The long, tortuous evolution of America | Column - Tampa Bay Times

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) A new traveling exhibit is opening this weekend at the Buffalo Museum of Science.

Its called Medieval to Metal: The Art and Evolution of the Guitar.

More than three dozen guitars spanning centuries will be on the display.

The exhibit details how guitars have changed over the years.

Itll be appealing for people of all ages, and when you come into the buffalo museum of science, you can be assured we are ready to greet you with a safe experience. Masks are required, social distancing is enforced, and we have all of our protocols to be sure people are safe.

Youre encouraged to get your tickets ahead of time online since the museum is operating with a lower capacity.

The exhibit runs through the summer into early September.

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Buffalo Museum of Science opening Medieval to Metal: The Art and Evolution of the Guitar exhibit - WIVB.com - News 4

Maybe rebellion is in Donald Trumps British genes. There are precedents in history.

In 1534, Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger (the Older had been a poet/ diplomat for Henry VIII, left a rebellion to prevent Queen Mary from marrying a Catholic Spanish prince. From his Allington Castle, he marched on London, picking up rebels along the way. There, he demanded Mary be sent to he Tower of London. Alas, his followers drifted away and he was arrested and executed.

Then in 1690, Presbyterian minister James Renwick was executed for not recognizing the kingship of James XII, the Catholic inheritor to the Scottish crown upon the death of his Protestant brother, Charles II. Those were the days when political parties derived from religious sects but they also played for keeps.

All reminding that Donald Trump is lucky to be living in modern America after allegedly inciting the invasion of the nations Capitol on Jan. 6.

Whatever the outcome of his Senate trial, Trump will still retire to his lavish golf resorts, receive full retirement benefits as well as Secret Service protection while continuing his patriotic campaign. Call it the evolution of mankind.

DAVID CHILDS

Johnstown

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Donald Trump is the evolution of mankind | News, Sports, Jobs - Gloversville Leader-Herald

If that is what youwant.

Modders have recreated much-loved 2003 real-time strategy game Command & Conquer Generals in the Red Alert 3 engine.

Command & Conquer: Generals Evolution, which released last week in beta form, certainly captures the feel and atmosphere of the original within the better-looking 2008 RTS Red Alert 3. The modders have ported almost every unit from the original game, and added some new units "to spice up gameplay a bit". You can download Command & Conquer: Generals Evolution now from Moddb.

The video below, from YouTube channel DeathMetalMarine PCMR, shows a skirmish on max settings.

The mod is primarily the work of "Gunship Mark II" (here's the Patreon), who spent almost half their life working on the project.

Gunship Mark II plans to rest now the beta is out in the wild. "Working on this project was nothing but copious amount of stress," they said. "I had to sacrifice pretty much every ounce of my free time, even decline freelance job offers just to finish this thing (I think it's a 'me' problem at this point)."

However, eventually Gunship Mark II will return to add missing units, more infantry units, "some sort of short disjointed single-player campaign", a couple of co-op missions and brand new skirmish maps.

The video below, also from DeathMetalMarine PCMR, shows another game of Generals Evolution, this time playing as the USA Laser General (check out the Particle Cannon, the A10 Strike and the MOAB at 21:44).

EA released the wonderful Command & Conquer Remastered Collection back in June 2020. The hope is it did well enough to convince the powers that be to perhaps remaster another set of Command & Conquer games - or maybe even have a stab at a brand new entry in the legendary series. Check out our interview with EA producer Jim Vessella for more.

For now though, Command & Conquer Generals Evolution offers a trip down memory lane for any Generals fan. "All in all it's a feature rich release that should bring some C&C Generals nostalgia back," Gunship Mark II said.

Link:

Command & Conquer Generals Evolution mod recreates the much-loved RTS in Red Alert 3 - Eurogamer.net