GLI holds 8th annual Regulators Roundtable
March 17, 2009
From left: MGM Mirage Senior V.P. of Public Affairs Alan Feldman; Nevada Gaming Control Board Member Mark Lipparelli; ARIA Resort & Casino V.P. of Slot Marketing and Operations Michael Volkert.
Gaming
Laboratories International welcomed more than 200 people from across North America for its 8th annual Regulators
Roundtable. The conference, titled “Growing Together,” took place March 10-12
at the South Point Hotel Casino Spa in Las
Vegas and featured a range of the industry’s leading
experts.
Keynoting
the conference was IGT President, Chairman and CEO TJ Matthews, who gave a very
frank and informative discussion on the current economic state of the industry,
emerging technologies, regulation, and IGT’s support of open standards being
developed by the Gaming Standards Association.
Also
delivering a keynote address was GLI President and co-founder James Maida, who
discussed gaming from a global perspective, with a sharp eye to the current
state of the global economy and Obama Administration policies.
In
addition to the keynotes, the conference was comprised of two days of
enlightening panels. Opening the conference in grand style were MGM Mirage
Senior V.P. of Public Affairs Alan Feldman, ARIA Resort & Casino V.P. of
Slot Marketing and Operations Michael Volkert and Nevada Gaming Control Board
Member Mark Lipparelli. The panel discussed MGM Mirage’s decision to deploy the
world’s first completely networked casino at CityCenter, and the regulatory and
technical challenges they have overcome.
Next,
a blue-ribbon panel of experts discussed emerging technologies and their
potential impact on and use in combating problem gaming. Panelists were UNLV
Assistant Professor Sociology Dr. Bo Bernhard, IGT Director of Responsible
Gaming Connie Jones, Global Cash Access Executive V.P. & General Counsel
Katie Lever and GLI General Counsel & Senior Director Government Relations
Kevin Mullally.
The
first afternoon opened with Maida and GLI Engineering Director Rich LaBrocca
and Training Coordinator/Development Representative Michael Capen giving an
update on Class II charitable gaming. Next, a spirited discussion on regulating
during challenging times was moderated by Larry Gregory, Executive
Director of Mississippi Gaming and featured Paul Bullis, Director of Arizona
Department of Gaming; Clarence Greeno, Licensing Manager of the Missouri Gaming
Commission; and Michael Fries, Chief Legal Counsel of the Illinois Gaming
Board.
Day
two of the roundtable opened with updates, first on new technologies developed
by GLI to assist regulators in their daily jobs, and then a Sunday talk show-style
presentation of a legislative update from former NIGC Vice Chairman and
Commissioner Tom Foley, former NIGC Commissioner Jana McKeag and from GLI’s
Maida and Mullally. Panelists addressed Obama Administration policies toward
gaming generally, internet gaming, tribal gaming and the potential fiscal and
political impacts of those policies.
A
regulators-only panel included Russell W. Doxtdator, Mark Garrow, and Ross
Garrow from the St. Regis Mohawk Gaming Commission and moderator Joe Osterloh,
Chief Compliance Officer with the Viejas Gaming Commission. The panel discussed
the challenges of regulating in times of emerging technology and was
highlighted by an informative Q&A session with the audience.
In
a spirited and dramatic presentation, Barron Stringfellow of Joseph Eve
Certified Public Accountants/Certified Fraud Examiners challenged regulators to
be even more vigilant in enforcing Title 31 rules aimed at preventing money
laundering, now a $1.3 trillion global business.
The
conference ended with an in-depth discussion on internet gaming. World-renowned
internet gaming legal experts Gary Ehrlich of Catania Consulting, California
State Senator Tom Harman, Michael Lipton of Dickinson Wright LLP and Nevada
Gaming Control Board Chairman Dennis Neilander discussed the current state of
internet gaming, its future in Washington legislation, and its potential
financial and regulatory impact on states, including Constitutional issues of
states’ rights.
In
addition to the conference sessions, four in-depth training modules were
conducted at GLI’s Las Vegas
lab. Topics were presented by GLI engineering staff and covered “Advancing Game
Verification,” “Introduction to Redemption Kiosks in a Gaming Environment” and
“Raising the Understanding of Slot Accounting System Reports.” GLI’s partner
Foundstone A Division of McAfee presented a training session titled “Increasing
Network Security Knowledge.”
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