The American Gaming Association announced earlier this year that a sports-betting emporium will be included in the program at this year’s Global Gaming Expo. In an interview last week with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, an AGA official said that the sports-betting program at G2E will focus not only on sports-betting laws, taxes and regulations, but on the demand for “integrity fees” by the sports leagues.
Sara Slane, senior vice president of public affairs for the AGA, told the newspaper that sports book operators from around the world will showcase their product at G2E and share their experiences from legal sports-betting jurisdictions. She said Nevada regulators will be there to help as well.
“We do anticipate that we will have a lot of participation from those regulators there that can learn more about Nevada’s successful sports-betting model and how they can implement it in their states as well,” Slane said. “You have a handful of states that have already now enacted sports-betting legislation, so there’s a lot of discussion on what the regulations mean, how the suppliers and operators and sovereign tribal communities will take advantage of this opportunity,” Slane said.
Slane said the issue of integrity fees—a portion of betting action being demanded by the leagues in state-level lobbying efforts—will be a central topic as well. “There’s obviously a lot of controversy around what the leagues are proposing right now and the 20 percent revenue grab at the state level,” she said. “That will certainly be a hot topic of discussion as well as making sure that consumers are protected and that the operators are able to stamp out the illegal markets.”
