AGA Activities

Following the release last October of its report urging reform of state gaming regulations—Improving Gaming Regulation: 10 Recommendations for Streamlining Processes While Maintaining Integrity—the AGA and its members have begun several efforts to identify opportunities for improving regulatory processes. Proposed reforms range from simple changes in regulatory policy which regulators can adopt on their own, to formal amendment of established regulations, to required statutory amendments. The steps taken so far include:

• Conducting programs at Global Gaming Expo in October that explored the recommendations of the AGA’s report.
• Developing state-by-state matrices detailing existing statutes and regulations and how they measure up against AGA reform recommendations.
• Joining with state gaming associations to support reform efforts they already have under way and to encourage new initiatives. The regulatory reform project also will be a key topic at the AGA’s annual government affairs meeting in early February.
• Devoting a portion of the AGA website to regulatory reform, with the planned section to include background and explanatory materials on priority regulatory reforms, reports on the status of current reform efforts in each state, along with tools that reflect the reform opportunities in each state, the initial AGA report and a number of other related resources. The website is expected to go live in February.