The Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers honored veteran industry executive Gavin Isaacs and well-known gaming journalist Frank Legato with special awards at last week’s Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas.
Isaacs, 54, vice chairman of Scientific Games and one of the pre-eminent names in slots and systems, received the “2018 Jens Halle Memorial Award Honoring Excellence in Commercial Gaming Professionalism.”
Legato, 61, the editor of Global Gaming Business magazine, received the “2018 Peter Mead Memorial Award Honoring Excellence in Gaming Media & Communications.”
The awards were presented at a ceremony last Wednesday at AGEM’s exhibition on the G2E show floor at the Sands Expo and Convention Center.
“Few people in our industry’s history have traveled the world more than Gavin has, shaking hands, meeting customers and sharing his unique personality during a distinguished career that has also taken him to the top leadership position at multiple respected companies,” AGEM President Tom Nieman said.
Isaacs has been with Las Vegas-based, NASDAQ-listed SciGames since 2014, initially as president and CEO, where he played key roles in the company’s evolution as a multifaceted international conglomerate through mergers with machine gaming giants WMS, Bally Technologies and Shuffle Master.
The Australia native, an attorney by training, served for three years as chief executive of Shuffle Master parent SHFL Entertainment prior to joining SciGames and was COO of Bally for five years before that. He began his gaming career with Australia-based Aristocrat Leisure, where he advanced to become president of the company’s American operations.
Legato, a Pittsburgh-area native who has been writing about slots, systems and related products and technologies for more than 30 years, has been with GGB since 2002. He also co-authors the monthly “Frank Floor Talk” feature for the weekly e-newsletter CDC Gaming Reports.
He began his career in 1984 with a magazine called Public Gaming. He launched Casino Gaming magazine the following year, serving as editor, and later joined Casino Journal, where he quickly established a national reputation as a machine gaming expert. He has enjoyed popularity on the consumer side as well, writing for Casino Player magazine, where he led the spinoff of a monthly magazine titled Strictly Slots, and Atlantic City Insider.
“When it comes to slot machines and relationships with game companies, no one can touch Frank,” said Marcus Prater, executive director of AGEM. “He has experienced, and written about, more slot titles than anyone—ever—and he does it with an understanding and wit that conveys the entertainment aspect of the suppliers’ place in this global gaming industry.”
AGEM created the awards to honor the memory of Halle and Mead, who died in 2015. Halle was a longtime Bally and Novomatic executive in Europe who went on to serve as CEO of Gauselmann Group’s Merkur Gaming based in Florida. Mead was the founder and publisher of the now-defunct Casino Enterprise Management magazine.
Las Vegas-based AGEM is a non-profit trade group representing more than 160 manufacturers of gaming devices, systems and components worldwide.
