Sports betting, the prospects of a Donald Trump presidency and pro sports in Las Vegas drove the conversation at the American Gaming Association’s 2nd annual Gaming Experts Forum in Washington, DC on Thursday.
The public diplomacy event convened roughly 80 industry leaders, academics and congressional staff to hash out the zeitgeist issues facing the gaming world.
By bringing together experts from the traditional casino gaming industry with thinkers and media from the world of sports – including outlets such as ESPN and CBS Sportsline, the event helped to drive home the AGA’s push to converge two areas that have long remained siloed.
Sara Rayme, AGA Senior Vice President for Public Affairs, kicked things off by detailing the group’s new “raison d’etre” – a strategic plan to advance federal legislation that would repeal the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act and introduce a national framework for legal, regulated sports betting.
The three part strategic plan consists of identifying PASPA’s failure and the unintended consequences it has wrought, building a formidable coalition of industry, law enforcement and community groups to build public support for a new framework and finally unleashing this coalition in the halls of Congress to pressure lawmakers to act.
The AGA’s signature sports betting campaign emerged late last year in response to the publicity and lack of legal clarity surrounding daily fantasy sports, as well as the questions it raised among policymakers. That window of opportunity has opened the door for the most comprehensive push to reexamine sports betting in 25 years.
“DFS has been the gift that keeps on giving,” Rayme said.
The campaign was applauded by experts on various panels that examined what a new sports betting framework might look like and the sports leagues’ evolving – some would say double-minded – approach to the topic.
“If we’re going to wait for the sports leagues to lead the charge here, it’s going to be another 5-10 years,” said Daniel Wallach, an attorney with Becker & Poliakoff in Miami and one of the country’s foremost experts on PASPA. Wallach added that the AGA’s push – coupled with a possible circuit court ruling in the New Jersey sports betting case that could find PASPA unconstitutional – could create the perfect storm needed to push through comprehensive change.
With public support for sports betting growing and a strategy in place to effectively push Congress to act, Rayme estimated that the campaign would be a 3-5 year process that would ultimately be signed into law by the next president.
Just who that next president will be, and what the effects that new president will have on the gaming industry, also emerged as an elephant in the room topic.
Despite Donald Trump’s nearly two decades in the casino business, the prospect of a Trump presidency drew a skeptical reception at best.
David Rosenbaum, legislative director for Democrat Nevada Rep. Dina Titus, voiced caution over Trump’s isolationist proposals and plans to tighten enforcement of immigration laws, particularly given Las Vegas’s dependence on the tourism industry and its heavy minority population. Former Nevada congressman Steven Horsford, also a Democrat, added that Trump’s lack of knowledge and respect for the legislative process would be a challenge to advancing gaming industry priorities. Others pointed out Trump’s sour, and times hostile, relationship with Indian tribes on gaming matters.
Potential silver linings of a Trump presidency, some panelists reluctantly noted, included the prospects of corporate tax reform and lower hurdles to doing business across the board. The possibility of Brian Sandoval or Chris Christie assuming a cabinet position in a presidential administration also proved enticing, as both are governors of gaming states and have strong familiarity with the industry. Under Christie’s regime, New Jersey has consistently challenged PASPA in an effort to bring sports betting to the state’s embattled casino industry. It would not be far-fetched so see him emerge as a national champion on the issue.
The significance of Las Vegas-based pro sports teams to the sports betting question and the economic benefits they will yield to the city was also a key topic. Beverley Jackson of MGM expressed confidence that the city’s new NHL team – to be housed in the MGM-funded arena – would be a net draw among visitors and an asset to the Strip.
While the MGM arena is privately funded, further stadium construction continued to prove controversial. Ron Reese of Las Vegas Sands emphasized that his company’s request for $750 million of state money for a stadium project to lure the Oakland Raiders should not be regarded as corporate welfare but rather as an investment into the city’s tourism infrastructure, a suggestion that keynote speaker Jon Ralston and other panelists blasted as untenable.
