Just a few quick notes to update the membership on where we are as we approach the middle of our organization’s business year . . .
If you haven’t signed up to join or have yet to renew your membership in IAGA, please do so now. We welcome as members those who serve as financial, legal and business advisors to leadership in the regulated gaming industry. This is the case regardless of the form of gaming enterprise; that is, casinos, race tracks, card clubs, lotteries, etc., whether brick and mortar or virtual, on-line businesses, and regardless of geographic location. If you know any prospective members, or have any questions about eligibility for membership or our dues structure, please contact our executive director at director@theiaga.org.
IAGA at ICE
Kudos to Gavin Isaacs, Julian Harris, Katie Lever and Kerry Koenig for their work in helping IAGA co-sponsor and present a full day of educational programming at the ICE trade show in London on January 25, 2012. IAGA helped present six separate conference sessions this year, including a CEO Roundtable moderated by Frank Fahrenkopf which featured Shufflemaster CEO Gavin Isaacs, Speilo International President & CEO Walter Bugno, bwin party Co-CEO Jim Ryan and Novamatic Group of Companies CEO Franz Wohlfahrt. The roundtable was followed by a session entitled, “Technology and Gaming: The Role of Regulators and Independent Laboratories,” and a panel on Regulator MOUs. After a luncheon hosted by IAGA, participants were treated to an update on the Changing EU Markets, an on-line gaming presentation, and finally a lively debate on the British Gambling Act of 2005. Prior to moderating the Regulator MOU’s panel on January 25, IAGA Vice President Julian Harris also moderated several sessions at the World Regulatory Briefing Conference on January 24. Overall, everyone agreed that IAGA’s participation in various sections of the ICE tradeshow was very meaningful and we look forward to future collaborations.
We are proud to announce that IAGA and Casino Enterprise Management magazine have a unique partnership. Coverage of IAGA’s 2011 Las Vegas conference was prominently featured in the October issue of CEM, along with an article written by IAGA Board of Trustees member, Lynne Kaufman of Cooper Levenson entitled, Ready, Set, Wait . .. . Getting Your Debt Ready to Go When the Markets Are. Every month thereafter, CEM has published an article written by another IAGA member. Check out www.casinoenterprisemanagement.com to view past issues including Jennifer Carleton’s (Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck) November contribution entitled, Does Your Business Plan Conform to Federal Gaming Law? Other contributing authors included Julian Harris and Ronan Delcroix (Harris Hagan), MOUs – Purposes and Future Prospectives, December edition; Richard Nathan (Robinson Waters & O’Dorisio), International Online Gaming Regulation: Turning Fiction Into Fact, January edition; Judy Patterson (American Gaming Association), Advancing Regulatory Reform, (February edition), Tom Smock (iRaise Gaming), Considering Slot Machine Malfunctions (March edition) and Tommy Shepherd and Kenneth Steely (Jones Walker), Step By Step: Florida’s Path to More (or Less) Gaming, (April edition). If you are interested in penning a future article, please contact our executive director at director@theiaga.org for more information.
As previously announced the 2012 IAGA Gaming Conference will be held in October in Singapore. We have selected the historic and elegant Raffles Hotel as the location of the Conference, which will open with a welcoming cocktail reception the evening of Tuesday, October 23, and be followed by conference programming on Wednesday and Thursday, October 24 and 25, and our closing dinner on Thursday evening.
We continue to coordinate our conference and events with the leadership of the International Association of Gaming Regulators, which will be holding its 2012 conference at the nearby Pan Pacific Hotel on October 22 and 23. We are advised that, unlike many prior years, most of the IAGR sessions will be open to attendance by IAGA members. We will keep everyone posted as more details are learned. We intend to open all of our sessions to IAGR members and invite several of them to participate as speakers.
Conference Program planning is well underway. The Conference Committee, led by Martha Sabol, has worked hard to develop interesting and timely conference topics and identify industry leaders to address them. We look forward to sharing more details on the Conference Program in the next few months.
2012 Mid-year Business Meeting
The Trustees’ and Counselors’ mid-year business meeting will be held April 28, 2012 at the 70 Park Avenue Hotel in New York City. At that meeting we intend to fill remaining vacancies on the Board of Trustees, select a Conference location for 2013, finalize the details of the 2012 Conference, and attend to any other necessary business of the organization. Many thanks to Martha Sabol and the Greenberg Traurig law firm, which will be hosting a cocktail reception for the Trustees and Counselors the evening of April 27 at the firm’s offices just a few blocks from the hotel.
More Organizational Business
Between the annual conferences, and in addition to the mid-year business meeting, IAGA functions not only through its executive officers, but also through its various committees. We have attempted to expand committee participation within the organization by appointing to committees where appropriate at least two Trustees, one Counselor and one IAGA member who is not yet a Trustee or Counselor. We also have assigned our officers as ex-officio members of the committees to ensure further participation and oversight.
Following is the roster of committees that are functioning at the moment: Program Committee (Julian Harris, ex-officio): Martha Sabol, Chair, Peter Cohen, Michael Cohen, Yvette Landau, Richard Lindstrom, Paul West. Audit Committee: Brian Larson, Chair, Jack Godfrey, Scott Schweinfurth and Randall Thomen. Membership and Nominating Committee (Tommy Shepherd, ex-officio): Laura McAllister-Cox, Chair, David Berman, Rochanne Hackett and Guy Michael. Shannon Bybee Memorial Scholarship Award Committee (Robert Melendres, ex-officio): Morden Lazarus, Chair, Tom Auriemma, Peter Bernhard, Robert Faiss, Greg Giordano, Richard Nathan, Ken Oettle and Ray Pike.