Gaming is part of mainstream America, but there is still much to be done

A full-page newspaper advertisement in the Wall Street Journal promoting Bloomingdale’s holiday weekend sales drove home a point: gaming has become ingrained in our culture.

The department store’s offer of discounts — 20 percent, 25 percent, 30 percent, and 40 percent — were lined up on the reels of an imaginary old-style slot machine.

There was no mention of a bonus round.

For the American Gaming Association, the image alone was the jackpot.

I displayed the ad for attendees at the AGA’s Gaming Experts Forum this week. The day-long forum brought together industry representatives, policy makers, media members, and gaming insiders. Panel discussions covered topics that included politics, the potential for legalized sports betting, and the health of regional casinos and the Las Vegas Strip.

At the forum, I took part in the reporter panel session, and offered tips for covering the gaming industry. That panel featured former Review-Journal colleague Chris Sieroty, now at GamblingCompliance.com, and Boston Globe reporter Sean Murphy.

The underlying theme of the forum could be spelled out in one word: mainstream. In the U.S., gambling has become ingrained into the mainstream culture. Legal gaming revenues are well over $200 billion annually, from commercial and American Indian casinos located in forty states.

That’s one reason AGA Senior Vice President of Public Affairs Sara Rayme used the forum to promote the trade group’s three-pronged effort to legalize sports gambling. The plan emphasizes the elimination of a roughly $150 billion annual illegal sports betting market, replacing it with a regulated system.

It helped to have legendary Las Vegas bookmaker Jimmy Vaccaro participate in a panel explaining the ins and outs of regulated sports betting. The old-school Vaccaro, who opened several of Las Vegas Strip’s largest sports books, entertained the audience with some legendary Las Vegas stories. Vaccaro, who runs the South Point Race and Sports Book, clearly made the point that Americans have a considerable appetite for sports betting.

The potential for legalized sports betting has become a topic of discussion in gaming industry board rooms, on sports radio and television talk shows, and in legislative hallways. The AGA and other experts believe the current focus should be on repealing the 1992 federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA).

Professional sports leagues have softened their opposition to legalized betting, but remain hesitant to fully embrace the activity. However, the lines separating professional sports teams and the gaming industry have become blurred.

Andrew Brandt, NFL Business Analyst for ESPN, and a former front office executive with the Green Bay Packers, recounted how several entrance tunnels at the team’s historic Lambeau Field stadium were named for a local Wisconsin Indian casino. Visiting teams were often housed at the casino’s hotel.

The New Orleans Saints have held their training camp at the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia, which is home to one of the state’s largest casinos. The NBA’s newly-crowned champion, the Cleveland Cavaliers, is owned by Dan Gilbert, the chairman of Jack Entertainment, which operates three casinos in Ohio and one in Detroit.

Also, the MGM Grand Detroit sponsors a luxury seating area and fan experience at Ford Field, home of the NFL’s Detroit Lions.

The lack of sports betting at those casinos, Brandt surmised, made the relationships palatable to the NFL and NBA. However, Brandt said, the National Hockey League’s recent decision to award Las Vegas an expansion franchise was a “momentous inflection point” toward legalized sports betting. But Todd Fuhrman of CBS Sportsline speculated that sports leagues were still fearful of legalized betting because they are not familiar “with how all of it works.”

Obviously, there is still a tremendous amount of work to be done by the gaming industry to become fully part of the mainstream culture, despite recent achievements.

Some of that work will be on Capitol Hill. David Rosenbaum, legislative director for Representative Dina Titus, D-Nev., said that gaming industry representatives need to continue their efforts to build relationship with congressional staffers in Washington, D.C., so they are able to address key concerns.

That work will be without gaming’s best resource in Congress. A panel of Capitol Hill staffers and political insiders told the forum that the impending departure of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid should concern the gaming industry. Reid, who has represented Nevada in the Senate since 1987, is retiring in January 2017.

Keynote speaker Jon Ralston, Nevada’s top political pundit, called Reid the most powerful Nevadan to ever serve in Congress, and said that the gaming industry was losing its most influential advocate. Reid, Ralston warned, will be hard to replace.

Editor’s Note: Howard Stutz is the strategic development manager for Greenberg Traurig – Las Vegas. On July 11, he will become the Director of Corporate Communications for Golden Entertainment Inc.

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