In Washington, and many other places across the country, 2012 was dominated by the presidential election and other important, down-ticket races, and it was difficult to get a lot of legislative work done in such a politically-motivated and contentious environment. At the American Gaming Association (AGA), we are looking forward to the many things we can accomplish on behalf of the commercial casino industry in 2013.

Acting as the voice of the commercial casino industry on Capitol Hill is one of the AGA’s primary roles, and in the coming year, it plans to work tirelessly advocating for those issues most important to our members and the industry as a whole. This will include educating lawmakers about the importance of federal legislation allowing states to license and regulate online poker, and representing industry interests during debates on issues like tax and immigration reform.

In addition to its work on federal issues, the AGA will stand up for the industry across the country on issues like restricting Internet sweepstakes cafes and promoting regulatory reform, while also educating key stakeholders about the real and positive impacts our businesses have on communities.

In addition to its government affairs work, the AGA will spearhead a number of industrywide initiatives in 2013. Early in the year, the AGA will celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the implementation of the AGA Code of Conduct for Responsible Gaming by releasing an update of the Code that addresses the modern industry and the way it interacts with its customers, employees and the public. Also on the responsible gaming front, the AGA will continue to work with its affiliated charity, the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG), and will develop new, interactive tools for responsible gaming education.

The AGA’s Global Gaming Women (GGW) initiative will build upon the momentum it generated during 2012 with more mentoring and networking events across the country and worldwide. GGW also will create more online tools for women in gaming, and during the first quarter, it will unveil a new online mentoring network to connect industry women around the globe.

The AGA also plans to continue the success of the year-long “All In” campaign that showcased the industry’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts by repeating research initiatives to quantify the impact of industry CSR programs in the areas of philanthropy and environmental sustainability. Another CSR area that will garner attention during 2013 is diversity, with the AGA releasing the latest version of its employment diversity study – the first such report since 2008.

Creating business opportunities for the gaming industry is another primary focus of the AGA, and during 2013, we will do that through the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) family of events. So far, exhibit sales for G2E Asia and the flagship G2E event in Las Vegas have both been brisk, showing signs that there could be significant growth for each this year. G2E also will create resources like webinars and virtual conference sessions so that gaming companies, the public and the media can stay up-to-date on key industry issues like the burgeoning I-gaming sector.

The AGA is proud of its efforts to represent, support and promote the commercial gaming industry and looks forward to continuing this work in the coming year.