“I did what needed to be done to get a place at the table.”
Al Williams, the new President of the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States, is talking about his experiences with the Civil Rights movement. But he could be talking about other experiences he’s faced, including his new role at NCLGS.
Williams walked in the 1963 March on Washington and joined the march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. He had roles with Fair Fight Action and the Liberty County Development Authority and was jailed 17 times for his activism. Williams also served in Vietnam, from where some of his friends never came home.
Williams said he escaped much of the vitriol that was directed toward Vietnam veterans because he lived near a military base. But there was still a price to be paid.
“I lost friends over there whom I’ll never forget,” Williams says. “It was a life-changing experience for me.”
In order to get through that period, Williams did what needed to be done. So, a little thorny issue such as dealing with prediction markets is not going to stop him.
“I think that it’s a bridge too far,” Williams tells CDC Gaming of prediction markets. “I just think that the lack of control, there’s got to be some regulations. There is not. I think that it’s only going to get worse. We’ve got to deal with it.”
Williams previously served as NCLGS’ Vice President before being elected to his current role at the recent Summer Meeting in San Diego.
Williams didn’t know much about the organization until a few years ago when he attended a NCLGS conference.
“I was very impressed with how they handled things,” he says. “Listening to the pros and cons, I was impressed with the bipartisan nature of it. There was honest and sincere work toward coming up with the best products and improving existing products. This impressed me.”
He’ll work to maintain that bipartisanship because it’s effective.
“You check your extreme partisanship at the door, because we’re not here to argue political questions,” Williams says. “We’re here to discuss gaming, and it’s worked for us. And we’re definitely not going to change from that.”
Other than prediction markets, Williams says that a look at gambling nationwide is in order. He notes his home state of Georgia, where he serves as a state representative, doesn’t have legalized gambling.
“We lose a lot of tax revenue in Georgia because folks find a way to (gamble),” Williams says. “We invite illegal markets by having a closed market. Prohibition should have been a lesson for everybody in this country and what the law can do and what kind of element it produces as a result of (gambling being illegal).”
NCLGS also will continue to address other issues. The organization will be on the front lines, trying to safeguard the health of the gaming industry, holding operators to better practices, and especially making sure that minors to do not have access to gambling.
When Williams went to his first NCLGS conference years ago, he came away impressed by how attendees were committed to getting work done.
“The people that showed up at every conference, the people that really came to be able to go back to their states and do better, that’s impressive,” Williams says. “Because people who are not serious don’t usually show up, and so that’s good, because we’re not a party conference. We come to take care of business.”
