Bill Miller, CEO of the American Gaming Association, came from a family of lawyers. But instead of following the “family business,” he always had a dream to chase the political world.
“I grew up in the legal world. My father was a Maryland trial court judge for 27 years. I had an uncle who was a judge. My father and his two brothers were lawyers. My grandfather was a lawyer. He came to D.C. from Indiana, where he went to law school. His whole family was from Nebraska, and they were all lawyers. But I felt like I always had the political bug,” Miller said.
Although he did earn his law degree, that political bug led Miller through a series of positions that required a defined instinct for politics. That eventually led to using what he learned to lead gaming organizations through the political world to better serve the industry as CEO of the American Gaming Association.
Today his political aspirations are rewarded by leading the more-than-20-person AGA to advocate to policy makers, Congress, the Senate, the new president and governors about the gaming industry’s needs. The result of his advocacy often determines government policy for an estimated 1,000 casinos in the United States.
Unprecedented
The American Gaming Association (AGA) represents the $329 billion U.S. casino industry. Since joining AGA in 2019, Miller has elevated the association’s influence in Washington, advanced key industry priorities, and deepened member engagement.
Most notably, under Miller’s leadership, AGA navigated the gaming industry through the COVID-19 pandemic. He led the advocacy effort that united AGA members and the broader gaming industry, secured unprecedented federal relief, and created a favorable policy landscape for gaming’s remarkable recovery.
Miller has more than three decades of experience on Capitol Hill and has represented business interests in Washington, D.C. Early in his career, Miller served as chief of staff and campaign manager for Representative Constance A. Morella (MD-8), overseeing the congresswoman’s legislative and political agenda.
At the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Miller served as Senior Vice President and National Political Director. He drove the Chamber’s political affairs and federal lobbying efforts for more than a decade, where he created a favorable policy environment for the U.S. business community to thrive.
Miller also spent time as a partner at international corporate communications firm Brunswick, providing strategic counsel to several U.S. and international corporations.
Prior to joining AGA, Miller served as the top lobbyist at the Business Roundtable, the association of chief executive officers of America’s leading companies. During his tenure, he led consequential lobbying efforts to pass the landmark 2017 tax reform legislation and usher in the USMCA agreement.
Miller is recognized as an influential leader in Washington, including being named to Washingtonian magazine’s Most Influential People List and The Hill’s Top Lobbyists for multiple years.
In the trenches
Bill Miller began his career in the trenches of American politics—serving as chief of staff and campaign manager for Representative Constance A. Morella of Maryland (MD-8). In this pivotal role, he managed both legislative strategy and political operations from 1991 to 1999, laying the groundwork for his deep understanding of how policymaking and advocacy intersect in Washington, D.C
“I always loved politics and government and elections, and so I gravitated to that,” Miller said.
“I was chief of staff to Connie Morella from Maryland, and she was a Republican, but she represented a district that was the most Democrat district in America. So, it was always very difficult. Today she’s 93 years old and I’ve got two kids, my oldest son turned 12, and my little one is 10, and they think of Connie as their grandmother.
“It was a particularly challenging job because I was her campaign manager, and I was her chief of staff, and then I went to law school at night.
“We had three different offices, one on Capitol Hill, and then two out in Montgomery County in Maryland. She was a local member. Most of the time, when members of Congress go home to their districts the staff in Washington gets a reprieve and a break.
“My boss lived in Bethesda, so our constituents could take the metro down to come and visit us unannounced, and they did all the time on all sorts of issues,” Miller recalled.
Every side of every issue
Working for Congresswoman Morella taught Miller lessons in politics that he carries with him today,
“I will say that the learning that took place working for the Congresswoman taught me that you had to look at every side of every issue. The constituents were heavily Democrat, and we also had to think about our Republican colleagues who were in our conferences.
“I’ve always felt that it’s been a great benefit to me to work for a member who was a centrist, because it gave me the credibility to understand what the Democrat position is and what’s the Republican position, and then it translates into a better thought process around making decisions.
“My job is to influence legislative bodies, governors, cabinet members, Senate, and House members. You always have to understand who they are, where they come from, and what their makeup is in terms of why they would care about an issue that you’re going to bring them. Working for Connie Morella forced you to really think through all of the different stakeholders, all of the different pieces,” Miller declared.
Counterweight
“By then Tom Donohue, CEO of the US Chamber, who was a titan in this town, came to the Chamber in 1997 and he said,’ Look, I really want to create a counterweight to the trial lawyers, to the labor unions. We need the business community to have that counterweight, mostly in terms of advocacy and lobbying, but also in terms of political clout.’
“I had the great privilege of being the political director at the US Chamber for 11 years, I ran all their grassroots. I ran all the advocacy. We had five regional offices around the country where we interfaced with all the state and local chambers, and then all the association CEOs and I was the principal interface,” Miller said.
Brunswick Group
“I spent about a year as a partner at the Brunswick Group. Brunswick is a London-founded crisis communications and financial communications firm. When I was there, we helped Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook prepare for their IPO, which was a fascinating process. I was put on the team for the BP oil spill, and the Deepwater Horizon spill. I was part of that crisis comms team. I was really excited to go there, learn something different and utilize my political, congressional, and communication skills in that realm,” Miller said.
The Board of Directors of America
“I was hired by John Engler who was the former three-term governor of Michigan, and the CEO of the Business Roundtable. He wanted a chief lobbyist. He wanted somebody who people knew up on the Hill, who had bipartisan credibility and could advocate on behalf of the CEOs.
“The Business Roundtable is made up of only chief executive officers. When I was there, it was probably 205 Fortune 500 CEOs that made up the organization. You couldn’t bring your lobbyist; you couldn’t bring your staffers. It was just the CEOs that came to our offices four times a year.
“So, it would be the governor, me, and whatever policy people that were on the staff of the BRT interfacing directly with the absolute titans of industry such as Jamie Dimon and Rex Tillerson.
“I worked there for five years during the Obama administration and for the first term of Trump. I would say that I thought of Business Roundtable as kind of the board of directors of America because these are literally the biggest employers in the country. We could get a meeting with anybody, pretty much anytime, and I could bring in three or four Fortune 500 CEOs into a meeting with a member of Congress,” Miller related.
Working at the BRT during the Obama administration Miller was able to develop important free trade agreements, including the USMCA agreement. During the first year of the first Trump administration, the Business Roundtable was able to coordinate with Fortune 500 CEOs to develop corporate tax rate reductions.
“It was the first time in 25 years that we were able to lower the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and so that was a huge endeavor. And my principal job was to find the choke point for every one of those CEOs in terms of, what do you care about. When you talk to Walmart, those guys would say, ‘Look, I care about the tax rate because when we are in the sales and retail business, the corporate tax rates are the most important thing.
“But then I’d have John Chambers, who was the then CEO of Cisco, the software company, and he would say, ‘Bill, I don’t care about the tax rate. What I really care about is repatriation,’ because at the time, the U.S. was the only territory in the world that had double taxation. So, you’d make your money in the Netherlands, you’d pay Netherlands tax, but if you wanted to bring your money back to the U.S., you got taxed again. What ended up happening was literally trillions of dollars in corporate earnings were overseas because these guys didn’t want to bring it back,” Miller recalled.
Future connections
Working at his previous political jobs, Miller would meet and get to know leaders in the gaming industry such as the late Sheldon Adelson of Sands and Gary Lovemen of Caesars, who were instrumental when it came time to consider moving to the American Gaming Association.
I asked Miller how a non-gaming executive was selected as CEO of the AGA.
“I understood the casino business and the interests because of Sands, principally. When I went to BRT, I got to know Gary Loveman at Caesars and MGM. I knew some of the IGT guys from D.C. I think they said that this is a guy who has shown that he can work in challenging environments and build consensus. And this is an industry that sometimes has been defined by more division than collaboration and agreement,” Miller said.
Into the fire
Miller began his role of CEO of the American Gaming Association the same day in 2019 that “The interim Attorney General issued a reinterpretation of the Wire Act that certainly made the first day, not the day that you’re filling out paperwork and finding out where the bathroom is. It was actually a live exercise on day one. And, you know, fortunately, we were able to get through it at that time,” Miller said.
Tipping point
After a little more than one year on the job as CEO of the AGA, Miller faced down the biggest disruptive event in the history of the modern gaming industry, COVID.
“I had a meeting with Rush Street, and I flew out in the morning. I was planning to have lunch with their CEO Greg Carlin and Neil Bluhm.
“And so, we go in, we have lunch, and a person on Greg and Neil’s team comes up and says,’ Hey, they just canceled the Big Ten Tournament, Major League Baseball and the NBA.’ That was the tipping point. I remember going to O’Hare Airport, flying back to D.C. that afternoon, and it was like a ghost town.
“I came back home and one day after that, two days after that, three days after that, states were closing everything, including casinos. There were a couple of days in March that were massively consequential for every American and for every business here and globally unlike anything we’ve ever seen in our lifetime.
“I remember having a conversation with Bill Hornbuckle of MGM, and he said ‘We had to close, we had to lock all these doors. We don’t have any keys to any of these doors because our casinos are never closed.’ And so, there were these kinds of incredible moments,” Miller said.
Pivot
“We pivoted pretty quickly to working with the White House at the time and what was the best CDC guidance. I remember being on calls with the White House Office of Public Liaison. They were talking about routing international visitors through five different cities. And so, if you came into an airport, no matter where it was, they were going to create five different entry points for foreign visitors that they’d get cleared through,” Miller stated.
Double down on advocacy
Miller and his team had to eventually decide to shut down G2E in Las Vegas and Macau. They participated in decisions on shutting down slot manufacturing factories and what to do with cost cutting measures for his own organization, the American Gaming Association.
“How we handled the trade show was super important. And then obviously for us financially as an organization we basically had to say we need to cut every non-essential service, but we need to double down on advocacy, because at the end of the day, the federal government is going to give out a lot of relief and stimulus to restart the economy whenever it’s the appropriate time.
“And we did not want to be left out. Because this is an industry that in the past when there’s been recovery bills and stimulus bills, we’ve been carved out for whatever reasons because people didn’t like our industry. So really since 9/11, the Great Recession, and bailouts that happened after Super Storm Sandy and Katrina, the casino industry and the gaming industry were not given financial aid. This time we were treated like every other American business. And I am very grateful for that. I think it spoke to us being prepared to meet that moment on behalf of our members, because it was really, really important,” Miller declared.
“During the reopening after COVID, the casino industry was one of the earliest discretionary income, travel, and leisure dynamics to open, mostly because we are so important from a tax-based perspective.
“For the states, we’re not the lowest taxpayer in our states. We’re almost always the highest taxpayer in our states. State governments recognized getting casinos open, but opened safely, was incredibly important from a financial perspective and to begin the process of literally reopening up the American economy,” Miller said.
Optimistic
I asked Miller what he thought of the status of the gaming industry five years after the pandemic. Miller highlighted the industry’s growth, with 18 consecutive quarters of revenue growth, and the shift in demographics to a younger audience.
“I am optimistic. I think that there are two reasons for optimism. Number one, I think that the industry has really evolved from its early days and the stigma that was associated with the industry from Bugsy Siegel and the mob and the movie “Casino.”
“Number two, I’m a numbers guy. We have over 1,000 casinos in America. Are we doing better? Are we doing worse? I think the industry is still strong. One of the reasons is favorability. Almost nine in 10 Americans believe casino gaming is acceptable for them, friends, and family. For the last 10 years, public sentiment has remained the highest it’s ever been,” Miller said.
Preconceived notion
“That’s because, as casinos grew from not just Nevada, not just Atlantic City, not just where river boats are, but they actually came into other states and other communities – people might have had a preconceived notion about what a casino in your town means, and generally it was neutral to negative. But when the casinos came, they now had new restaurants, new hotels, new retail operations. And then the fire department got two new fire trucks because there’s increased tax revenue for the community.
“When we actually open, people say, ‘Wow, this is great. Nothing has happened in this town for 25 years, and now we’re seeing economic activity and economic growth, and it’s creating jobs and an economic opportunity for a town that was left behind by textiles or steel or auto.’ Having that story is very politically powerful and also incredibly powerful from a narrative perspective,” Miller declared.
More transformative
“And, you know, that’s just the commercial side. On the tribal side it’s even more transformative. I mean, these are a people that have been treated worse by the American government than anybody. The tribes have been treated horrendously by the federal government for many, many years, and the gaming industry has allowed them to not only sustain, but to thrive. And that is an incredibly powerful narrative. So, what has happened continues to create that sustained optimism,” Miller stated.
What keeps you up at night?
When you consider all the possible threats to the gaming industry, I asked Miller what keeps him up at night.
“The thing that keeps me up at night is probably the illegal market more than anything. Whether we like it or not, the general public is not sophisticated enough to understand the difference between illegal gambling and legal gambling.
“We’re creating a lot of jobs and a lot of tax revenue; the illegal market is not doing any of those things. But reputationally, if someone has a problem, or they have a financial ruin or some serious negative consequences because of gambling, most of the time that comes from the illegal gambling market. Because our interest is long-term sustainability as an industry and long-term sustainability does not come from taking advantage of your customers.
“Then you get into the questions of some of these others, sweepstakes and DFS (daily fantasy sports) 2.0 and most recently, which probably causes me the most unrest, is the prediction markets, which in essence are creating the potential of a national sports betting network under the auspices of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. I believe that’s an affront to the 8,000 regulators that work at the state and tribal levels that have built an industry,” said Miller.
The gray market
“I think that the CFTC is exceeding their statutory mandate. These are what I would call more of the gray market, because they have some version of legality and then skill games.
“Whether it’s Virginia, or Pennsylvania, or these other places where folks have just said, ‘Well, this is not a game of chance. It’s not a slot machine. It’s a game of skill,’ and they found some crafty lawyers to find the loophole in whatever state statute. Then they put 70,000 machines in the state of Pennsylvania and if you’re Penn National, and you paid $50 million for a gaming license, and then you’re paying a 52% or 54% tax rate, and you have to compete with the local convenience store, local tavern, or Legion hall that has three skill game machines that does not pay taxes but allows the individual to play without any age verification or any suitability verification. This is really problematic. When I talk about the things that keep me up at night; how can we get law enforcement, everything from the FBI to the attorneys general in states to the regulators in different states, to prioritize this? And we’re having some success,” Miller declared.
Remarkable growth
I asked Miller to comment on the fantastic growth of legal sports betting in the United States since he has been CEO of the AGA.
“It’s quite a remarkable story. I’ve often said this, ‘I’ve been either in government, advising government, lobbying government, and it’s hard for me to find a parallel at the state level for anything to move as quickly as sports betting.’
”Because just think about how the political makeup of America today is not one where you see bipartisan, widely-held agreements move forward. And now, almost 40 states plus D.C. have legal sports betting from May of 2018 when we had one state in America where you could legally bet on sports. Pretty remarkable. And, from that perspective, it is really interesting to get to the place where we are now,” Miller said.
Play Smart from the Start and Have a Game Plan
Miller has been progressively developing responsible gaming programs for the AGA. I asked him to explain Play Smart from the Start and Have a Game Plan for sports betting.
Play Smart from the Start teaches players positive gaming habits, how to understand games, gaming vocabulary, and other resources.
Have a Game Plan was created to help operators and partners remain within sports betting parameters.
“Have a Game Plan has been something that our team developed as states were legalizing because we wanted to make sure that we were not worried about our operators, because they’re all licensed, and the government holds those licenses, and the government has the power to fine us. It has power to take away our license if we don’t act in accordance with statute and regulation. And so, our industry understands that,” Miller said.
New business partners
“We have a whole bunch of new business partners: the NFL, sports teams, leagues, arenas, broadcasters, that are all now beneficiaries of the legalization of sports betting in these states. But they may not have any appreciation of the responsibility to make sure that this is fun and that there is downside risk here, and we need to.
“We needed to create a PSA campaign that is able to be reproduced, repackaged, reformulated for whatever business, whatever partner. We’ve got thirty some commercial partners that have endorsed and embraced Have a Game Plan. And it’s kind of reasonably simple.
“Number one. This is not a second job. Sports betting is supposed to be fun. It is for entertainment purposes. It’s part of sports fandom; but it’s not going to be your second job. It’s not going to be a way to supplement your income.
“Number two is, like any discretionary expenditure that you have in your personal world, make sure you have a budget. Make sure you stick to the budget. Don’t chase your losses. Know that it’s a social activity, that you’re doing it with friends, and you’re doing it with family, and know that you’re keeping it light.
“Finally, know the odds, know the game, know the rules, because especially with sports betting we’re seeing more first-time sports betters, or casual sports betters and sometimes they just don’t know the rules. Particularly, as you get into more exotic parlays and those sorts of things. We want to make sure that people understand what it is they’re betting on.
“Then, most recently, we added a component to Have a Game Plan, and that is, keep your cool. Because what we were starting to see was elements of athlete harassment when player proposition bets didn’t pay, and these were happening in the online world, mostly.
“We wanted to make sure that we were articulating that there is never a reason to harass an athlete or a coach, or other fans in a dynamic where just because you have a bet on a particular outcome of the game or particular player’s performance. There’s never a reason to act out in an unsportsmanlike manner.
“Because at the start of the NFL season we estimate that $30 billion is going to be bet on the NFL season. That’s a lot of money, and we want to make sure that responsible betting is being embraced by the public, and being accepted by the public,” Miller stated.
Success secret
I asked Miller what he thought contributed to his success. His answer was simple and succinct.
“The secret of my success has been go to work early, stay late and never stop learning,” Miller mused.
Bill Miller’s leadership at the AGA has been marked by strong advocacy, strategic direction, and navigating crises with a steady hand. Since 2019, he’s overseen exponential growth in the gaming industry, driven significant policy advances, promoted responsible gaming practices, and elevated the association’s impact.
Through his years leading the AGA, Miller has met significant challenges using political skills honed over the years and his own self-described political optimism.
Entries in the Faces of Gaming series:
- Bill Miller, CEO American Gaming Association – From a family of lawyers comes a political optimist (now reading)
- Steve Neely – Casino career lessons built on a frame of life
- Circa owner Derek Stevens – A sports-specific brand with a downtown Vegas vibe
- Phil Satre – Chairman of the Boards
- Michael Kaplan – Writing the book on advantage players, for gambling and for life
- Andrew Cardno — Data Scientist, Dyslexic, Taekwondo Master, Author, Futurist, A Modern Renaissance Man Who Really Should be Dead
- Dr. Katherine Spilde – There’s no place like home
- Mattress Mack – Furniture mogul, marketing genius, sports betting champ
- Jeff Connor, owner of Lockdogs – A better mousetrap
- Antonio Perez – An optimistic realist
- Kara Napolitano – Human rights advocate and trafficking expert
- Next Gaming CEO and skill-based slots evangelist Mike Darley
- Dennis Conrad – Executive, founder, creator, speaker, author, columnist, and innovator
- Adam Wiesberg – A journey from sign salesman to dealer to El Cortez GM
- Gary Ellis – Las Vegas entrepreneur
- Alan Feldman – From Mirage and MGM to responsible gaming expert
- John Acres – the Thomas Edison of gaming
- Alex Alvarado — Vice President, Casino Operations at MGM National Harbor and Casino Aficionado
- Lauren Bates — A successful VP at Konami and Chair of Global Gaming Women, all before her 40th birthday
- TJ Tejeda and EZ Baccarat – Reimagining a centuries-old game
- Chris Andrews — Don’t cry for the bookmaker
- Wes Ehrecke — From gasohol and pork chops to president of the Iowa Gaming Association
- Steve Browne – Casino philosopher, master gaming instructor and father of a rocket scientist
- Noah Acres – Shaking up the industry one player record at a time
- Kate Chambers – ICE queen, casino exhibition maven and keeper of fairy dust
- Joe Asher — From the newsstand and racetrack to sports-betting icon
- Paul Speirs-Hernandez — Randomness, chance, reward, and luck
- Ainsworth’s Deron Hunsberger — From finance and sales to president
- Roger Gros — Chronicler of the gaming industry for four decades and counting
- Debi Nutton — Everi board member, gaming trailblazer
- Cache Creek’s Kari Stout-Smith — Dancing backwards in high heels
- Andrew Economon — Making downtown Las Vegas cool again
- Richard Marcus — From the wrong side of the casino tables to the right
- Willy Allison — From New Zealand bloke to world game-protection leader
- Tom Jingoli — From gaming enforcement agent to COO of Konami Gaming
- Tino Magnatta — Interviewing the interviewer, 3,000 and counting since COVID
- Deana and Brady Scott — Still talking shop with the owners of Raving Consulting
- Kevin Parker — “Putting everything into everything I do”
- Laura Penney — Putting in the Work as CEO of Coeur d’Alene Casino
- Andre Carrier — Paying it forward
- Jean Scott — The original casino influencer, still frugal gambling after all these years
- Anika Howard — From Harrah’s First Interactive Employee to CEO of Wondr Nation
- Anthony Curtis — Gambling Guru, Las Vegas Expert, Customer Advocate with Street Cred
- Mark Wayman — An executive recruiter with a brand and something to say
- Melonie Johnson — From rural Louisiana to resort-casino leadership
- Brian Christopher — From actor, Uber driver, and cater waiter to slot celebrity
- Allan Solomon — From accountant and tax lawyer to pioneering casino owner
- Kenny Epstein — A Niche from Nostalgia
Tom Osiecki is a casino consultant who writes an occasional column for CDC Gaming called Faces of Gaming, about interesting and engaging people in the gaming industry.
Tom Osiecki is a marketing and management consultant for Raving Consulting and can be reached for consulting engagements at 775-329-7864.
If you know of a fascinating personality in the gaming industry you would like to see profiled, please send Tom Osiecki an email at tosiecki@cdcgaming.com
