Nevada Gaming Commission Chairman Tony Alamo Jr. will not seek reappointment to the body when his term expires the end of this month, saying the Covid-19 contagion requires him to devote himself full-time to his medical practice.
The Las Vegas physician said in a resignation letter to Governor Steve Sisolak that his role as chief medical director for one of the largest clinical delivery organizations in the state must be his primary responsibility going forward.
“As you are aware, the peak of the infection is theorized to occur in the next 10 to 14 days,” he wrote. “Therefore, I need to direct all of my energies to the clinical and logistical planning that my primary employment demands.”
It is reported that he will step down this Friday and will not attend the commission’s next meeting, set for April 22 in Carson City.
“First and foremost, Tony is an excellent doctor,” said A.G. Burnett, who worked in tandem with Alamo as chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board from 2012 to 2017. “I will always recall our work together on the Gaming Policy Committee. Anytime we discussed moving Nevada forward in terms of gaming regulation, he always stood front and center, ready to look at new ideas and ways to help the state. He will certainly be missed, but he’s needed in the medical community, and he’s incredibly valuable during this time of need.”
The son of Nevada gaming veteran Tony Alamo, a long-time executive with Circus Circus Enterprises and its successor, Mandalay Resort Group, Alamo became one of the commission’s five members in 2008 and has chaired the agency since 2012, when he was elevated to that post by Governor Brian Sandoval.
He was a member of the Nevada Athletic Commission when he joined the Gaming Commission and is the first person to chair both bodies. He also has served as a licensed ringside physician and for a time was chairman of the Athletic Commission’s Medical Advisory Board.
“To be part of the gaming industry is an honor in itself,” Alamo said. “I’m fortunate to have been the son of a gaming executive who devoted his entire life to gaming. I got to see that part of it and, to see it from the regulatory side, that was the ultimate honor. I worked with the very best.”
The Gaming Commission, which operates part-time, is the state’s final word on licensing requests and other gaming industry matters, usually acting on the recommendations of the Control Board, a full-time body that serves as the state’s principal investigative and enforcement agency for the industry.
