Another article in an exclusive series examining the AGA’s Strategic Plan
As gaming has grown and edged its way into the mainstream economy, the importance of forging unified positions that can be presented to the outside world has grown significantly in parallel.
As such, continuing to arrive at and drive positions on which there’s an alignment is a key pillar for promoting industry growth, as well its image, in the coming years per the American Gaming Association’s 2020 Strategic Plan.
Geoff Freeman, the AGA’s president and chief executive officer, stressed in an interview with CDC Gaming that the trade group has significantly diversified its membership roster in recent years and that it is, as a result, better equipped than ever to speak as unified voice on behalf of all casinos when it is unified.
“We focus where the industry has consensus,” he said. “The AGA is a more inclusive organization than it ever has been before, and, as such, a more powerful organization when consensus can be achieved.”
In addition to the big-name casino players that helped found the organization in the mid-1990s, the group now represents a much broader universe of smaller casino operators, game manufacturers and gaming tribes.
Freeman highlighted the dialogues and the back-and-forth around the issue of sports betting as a template for how potentially controversial issues must be addressed moving forward.
“The way we approached sports betting is the model for how we need to approach issues in the future, and that’s the model for driving consensus,” he said. “Where we can drive consensus is where we will focus our energy.”
The concept was met with skepticism by certain factions in Nevada, who weren’t keen to see the state’s monopoly disappear, and Indian tribes nervous about what sports betting expansion might mean for them and their respective tribal-state compacts.
But such concerns and uncertainties have been largely rectified through enhanced discussion and education.
“I think people are learning. It’s a complex business and people are trying to understand what it means for them,” Freeman said.
“I think we’ve got alignment,” he continued. “I’ve yet to meet anyone who believes that Washington should dictate to states or to tribes what casino-style games they should or should not be allowed to provide.”
The sports betting example, and the success it garnered in 2017, highlights the underlying principle that creating new opportunities are typically in everyone’s best interest.
“We’re focused on growing the gaming industry tribal or commercial,” Freeman explained. “Our concern isn’t one or the other – it’s how do we grow the pie and let the industry fight for its share.”
Freeman said the unity forged around sports betting is in stark contrast to the group’s efforts to advance internet gaming several years back, which quickly erupted into an intra-industry power struggle.
“I wish we could put that genie back in the bottle and start over and have the type of discussion that we had around sports betting on internet gaming,” he said, noting that the group has no intent to revisit the issue because there remains no point of alignment.
“I think that ship has sailed, and people have chosen their corners, and therefore it makes it difficult to have that conversation.”
Forging consensus on other issues like anti-money laundering, illegal gambling, off-reservation casinos or whatever else may emerge is also particularly important in terms of creating sound public policy that doesn’t impinge on the industry.
Freeman emphasized that improved relationships and dialogue with Indian tribes and smaller actors in the commercial casino space have proven critical on this front – offering the issue of off-reservation casinos as a prime example.
“For many, many years this was viewed as commercial versus tribe, when in fact there are a lot of synergies between many of the tribes and the commercial industry on this issue,” he explained. “By being a more inclusive organization, we found those synergies, we can now speak with one voice and hopefully drive a more favorable policy.”
The issue of expanded marijuana legalization across the U.S. at the state level – while still illegal pursuant to federal laws – is another area where the group is looking to forge and drive consensus.
“It begs a lot of questions from an AML standpoint,” he said, noting that more than 20 states have legalized marijuana in some form or another.
“It’s a great example of what we can do as a more aligned, more inclusive organization and our ability to educate on this issue.”
