Over the course of the past 30 or so years, Las Vegas attorney Tony Cabot has been witness to the transformation of gaming law as local, into what it is now, international. Not only has gaming law expanded geographically, but also in terms of complexity.
Cue UNLV, who together with gaming industry professionals are eager to take the helm in providing both resources and education for industry professionals looking to advance their knowledge on gaming regulation. Cabot is one of many university officials looking to shed light on this subject matter.
The center itself will be the creation of both the university’s law school and hotel college. Bo Bernhard, who serves as the executive director of UNLV’s International Gaming Institute has high hopes for a fall 2015 launch. Bernhard conceded “The gaming industry is a very strictly scrutinized industry, in large part because it’s got a history of bad guys being involved, but there’s never been an academic field dedicated to looking at how you monitor and regulate this very complex and global industry.”
Bernhard admitted that in the past, “the gaming world just wasn’t that big and just wasn’t that complex,” but implores the necessity of this research now due to the ever growing, and ever changing industry.
While the center has yet to be officially approved, Daniel Hamilton, dean of UNLV’s William S. Boyd School of Law, confidently referred to the center as “a great idea that we’re pursuing and we’re going to make happen.” Hamilton strongly feels this will perfectly compliment the master of laws in gaming law and regulation program, recently created and offering their inaugural class in fall of 2015.
Before any UNLV students get too excited, it should be noted classes at the center will only be offered to regulators and officials who are looking for solutions to expand gaming in their area. The center’s research will include many areas, including a look under the microscope to study the effectiveness of various forms of gaming regulations. One example of this would be for them to compare the methods used among different jurisdictions to quell problem gambling, an issue which all too often sneaks into the spotlight. Cabot stresses, “Until you have that empirical research done, regulators end up guessing at what works and what doesn’t.” Cabot continued, “and when you start to guess, you often have divergent methodologies.”
Gaming Control Board Chairman A.G. Burnett, who is regarded as one of the state’s top regulators agrees this center is a great idea, and goes one step further to acknowledge Nevada historically has been the “gold standard in gaming regulation.” Hamilton has high hopes people who work in the gaming industry can benefit from what is sure to be valuable, practical research.
