Disclaimer: I was responsible for this project as part of my role as “Head of Machine Learning & GenAI - Google Cloud” at adesso SE.

AI-Powered Cloud Solution for Digitizing Lottery Retail for Germany’s Largest Lottery

Overview

I led the development and deployment of a transformative AI solution that digitizes and decentralizes the lottery retail experience for Germany’s largest lottery provider.

We built a cloud-native lottery slip recognition system that replaces legacy scanner terminals with camera-based tablet devices—unlocking significant cost savings, operational flexibility, and access to previously underserved sales locations.

Launched in early 2023, the solution has operated flawlessly for 20+ months (as of November 2024), maintaining >99% recognition accuracy while processing over 40,000 lottery slips monthly—even from crumpled, dirty, or low-quality inputs.

Problem Solved

Traditional lottery terminals are expensive, bulky, and hard to scale. Especially to small-format stores like kiosks, bakeries, or rural points of sale. They also require specialized hardware and maintenance. This limits expansion and increases cost.

Solution & Strategic Impact

  • Drastically reduces hardware and operational costs by replacing traditional terminals with affordable Android tablets.

  • Enables rapid expansion into 100+ previously inaccessible sales points in North Rhine-Westphalia.

  • Improves user accessibility and customer experience—allowing continued use of standard printed lottery slips.

  • Delivers unmatched reliability with 0 reported issues over 20+ months in live production.

  • Future-proofs operations with a scalable, cloud-native architecture that adapts to new slip formats and demand spikes.

Key Features

  • AI + Classic Vision Hybrid: Uses machine learning and traditional image processing to achieve >99% accuracy from poor-quality slip images.

  • Tablet-Based UX: Compact, user-friendly Android solution designed for tight retail environments.

  • Cloud Native Infrastructure: Real-time processing at scale—fast, secure, and maintenance-free.

Technical Stack Highlights

  • Languages/Infra: Python, Docker

  • Google Cloud: Vertex AI, Cloud Run, Pub/Sub, Eventarc, Task Queues, Cloud Storage

  • Security & DevOps: Workload Identity Federation, GitHub Actions

Business Results

  • 40,000+ slips processed per month, error-free.

  • 100+ new sales locations activated without the cost of legacy hardware.

  • Seamless deployment across devices, with no customer retraining required.

  • Modular architecture supports fast onboarding of new lottery formats.

Industry Recognition

This solution has been showcased at global lottery and AI conferences, including:

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