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// PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL // November/December 2016
gambling industry
prepares for retirement
of senator reid
Lobbyists for the U.S. casino industry
are preparing for the retirement of
their leading advocate in Congress—
Senator Harry M. Reid of Nevada.
The American Gaming Association,
the gambling industry’s leading trade
group, is spending hundreds of thou-
sands of dollars on outreach to federal
and local lawmakers across the country
who they hope will champion gambling
interests after Reid retires in January.
Reid has shepherded several measures
that helped casinos in his home state.
Last year, he supported language in
a spending and tax bill that temporar-
ily preserved tax loopholes benefiting
the gambling and hotel industries,
and supported a measure that would
have given Caesars more leeway in re-
structuring debt to avoid bankruptcy.
Casino lobbyists expect the rest of the
Nevada delegation, especially Sen.
Dean Heller (R), will continue
advocating for their industry. But
they are expanding their campaign to
other states where gaming is newer.
Reid has received about $2 million from
casinos and gambling interests during
his career. Three of his five largest cam-
paign contributors were casinos: MGM,
Caesars, and Station Casinos.
In its efforts to enlist lawmakers as
champions of gambling interests,
the AGA is sidestepping discussion
of online gambling, an issue that has
divided the gambling industry and
garnered intense lobbying from sup-
porters and detractors.
The success of the AGA’s campaign
will be a test of the group’s ability to
adapt to changes the gambling indus-
try has undergone since the AGA was
founded in 1995 by former Repub-
lican National Committee chairman
Frank Fahrenkopf, who retired from
the AGA in 2013.
arch gleason has street
named after him!
The next time you visit Louisville,
Kentucky, you’ll want to hit the top
new attraction and take a stroll down
Arch Gleason Way. The whole Gleason
family and many of his lottery friends
were there for the christening of Arch
Gleason Way on Friday October 21.
His oldest son Archie spoke, and was
terrific—you can forward to around
the 11:00 mark here to hear what
he said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmNmRZKbqrE
new jersey takes its claim
to the us supreme court
as it seeks to argue that
the federal ban on sports
betting is a violation of its
constitutional rights un-
der the tenth amendment.
It will argue that the Professional
and Amateur Sports Protection Act
1992 (PASPA) is an unconstitutional
infringement of states’ rights. Though
there is no guarantee that it will even
receive a hearing. US Rep. Frank Pal-
lone Jr. (D-New Jersey) says it’s time
to amend the federal statute and bring
the law into the modern technological
world. Pallone said in a statement to
ESPN this week that PASPA is now
“obsolete” and in “desperate need of
updating.” A leading issue in removing
PASPA has been the strong opposi-
tion from leaders of the four primary
professional sports leagues in the US.
The NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL have
all opposed legalized betting on their
games in the past, but today that is no
longer the case. NBA Commissioner
Adam Silver has called for PASPA’s
repeal, the NHL is expanding a fran-
chise to Las Vegas, and MLB Commis-
sioner Rob Manfred thinks the sports
law needs to be refreshed. NFL Com-
missioner Roger Goodell, though,
continues to oppose the legalization
and regulation of sports.
gambling commissions and
regulators expect valve
(the developer of popu-
lar games like counter-
strike: global offensive)
to take whatever actions
are necessary to stop
third party websites
from using ‘skins’ for
gambling through its
steam platform system.
draftkings ceo jason
robins: why we got into
trouble with regulators
In 2015 DraftKings massively increased
its advertising expenditures from the
prior year, when it spent just $50 mil-
lion. For a few weeks the company was
among the nation’s largest ad buyers, on
par with huge corporations like AT&T
and Geico. This dramatic increase in
advertising, and resulting traffic to the
DraftKings site, may have attracted
regulators who hadn’t realized how big
the industry had grown. Robins also be-
lieves that aggressive marketing overex-
posed the company’s brand. As a result,
this year DraftKings significantly dialed
back its advertising, though now Robins
thinks that he may have overcorrected.
james e. billie, chairman
of the seminole tribe of
florida during a period
of soaring casino rev-
enues, was removed from
office.
The tribal council voted 4-0 on the re-
moval, acting on a recall petition filed
by tribal members that cited various
issues with policies and procedures in
the chairman’s office.
len ainsworth, howard
stutz honored as initial
recipients of association
of gaming equipment man-
ufacturers (agem) memo-
rial awards honoring jens
halle and peter mead