To mark the 20th anniversary of Responsible Gaming Education Week (RGEW), the American Gaming Association (AGA) hosted a roundtable in Atlantic City, NJ to highlight the industry’s commitment to this important issue.
Resources
Press Coverage Summary
CDC Gaming Reports – AGA Unites with Gaming Leaders to Underscore Industry-Wide Commitment to Responsible Gaming
CDC Gaming Reports – AGA: As gaming continues to evolve, so must responsible gaming efforts
Press of Atlantic City – American Gaming Association releases responsible gaming code
Entain
Advancing Sustainability
Lowering Carbon Emissions
In 2018, Entain set a target to reduce Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 15 percent per colleague by the end of 2021 and achieved this target early. While this decrease in emissions was expedited by the pandemic and resulting shop and office closures, data demonstrate Entain was already on track to achieving its goal based on pre-pandemic GHG emissions.
In early 2021, Entain committed to net zero GHG emissions by no later than 2035, 15 years ahead of the 2050 target for carbon neutrality set by the Paris Agreement. The Company also invested in GHG offsets for the first time in 2020. It purchased its offsets from Brynk, an independent platform that facilitates tree planting and reforestation projects. By 2023, these investments alone are predicted to offset its global Scope 1 and 2 emissions.
Entain also works with its suppliers to decarbonize the supply chain. As one example, Entain is highly engaged with its major third-party data centers, which make up most of the Company’s data center energy consumption.
Additionally, Entain started to focus in 2021 on increasing efficiency and transparency of minor suppliers in order to reduce Scope 3 emissions.
To integrate our commitment internally, Entain’s Green Ambassador program consists of 120 employees that work to identify practical ways they can improve environmental efficiency in the workplace.
Strengthening Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Increasing Board and Management Diversity
Twenty three percent of Entain’s Senior Management are women, which represents an improvement over the previous three years. Entain is working to continue the trend to realize additional improvement. Women now make up 40 percent of the Board of Directors.
Strengthening Employee DEI
Entain recognizes the need to strengthen diversity within its Company to remain at the forefront of customers’ needs and innovation. It launched its international diversity and inclusion strategy in 2018, “Everyone’s in the Game,” to create a more inclusive business within three years in four main areas: recruitment, progress and policy, people development, and awareness and education. Currently, women make up 47 percent of Entain’s total employee population.
Supporting Racial Equality and Social Justice Efforts
Entain actively supports diversity and inclusion in the gaming industry through the All-in Diversity Project, an industry-driven initiative that highlights diversity, equality and inclusion for the global betting and gaming sector.
Entain Foundation
In September 2019, the Entain Foundation committed to donating more than $131 million over five years to projects and foundations related to responsible betting and gaming, recreational sports, diversity in technology and local community projects near Entain’s offices.
Investing in Communities
Expanding Education and Career Opportunities
Entain launched two initiatives in early 2021 for young women interested in pursuing careers in technology. Additionally, Entain supports Girls Who Code and Tech Girls Movement in Australia. Currently, women make up 30 percent of Entain’s technical roles.
7 Principles for Safer Betting and Gaming
Entain has established seven principles that aim to make betting and gaming safer than ever before:
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- Understanding the problem by funding research to find the best possible solutions.
- Educating stakeholders about the potential risks of gambling and how to avoid them.
- Promoting responsible attitudes through advertising, marketing, and sponsorships.
- Empowering customers by adding features that help customers gamble safely.
- Funding addiction treatment.
- Championing responsible product design principles to make sure products are as safe as they are fun.
- Changing gaming for the better by making it safer across the board.
Responsible Leadership
Educating Customers
Entain aims to educate its customers through the Advanced Responsibility and Care Program, which utilizes evidence-based markers to identify risky behaviors.
Establishing and Following Rigorous Business Standards
In 2020, Entain continued to grow its responsibility programs by introducing its Advanced Responsibility and Care (ARC) program. The strategy is fully aligned with the UK Gambling Commission’s principal objectives to ensure betting and gaming is crime-free, fair, conducted openly and protects children and other vulnerable persons.
Training Employees
All team members are trained on safer betting and gambling practices. Starting in 2021, Entain employees were assessed on whether certain milestones of the (ARC) Program have been achieved.
Investing in Research and Partnering with Advocacy Groups
In 2021, Entain increased its research, education and treatment (RET) for problem gambling with a commitment to increasing RET to 1 percent of gross gaming yield by 2023. This commitment exceeds the four largest operators in the UK. Entain is on track to realize this commitment in 2022, a full year early.
Entain will continue to compile evidence and coordinate its response with other betting and gaming operators within the gaming industry.
Entain partners with The Young Gamers and Gamblers Education Trust (YGAM) as well as Cognacity at Lean House to help young people avoid gambling related harm through education, safeguarding, and treatment services.
A Note from the CEO
In the five years since the end of the federal ban on sports betting, legal wagering’s expansion is well documented: 37 states and the District of Columbia now have legal sports betting and Americans have legally wagered $229 billion, generating more than $3 billion in state taxes.
In recent months especially, policymakers, regulators, advocates and media have raised important conversations around responsible and problem gambling. These are discussions that the AGA and our members are eager to have. The reality is that the legal market is making sports betting safer for Americans, bolstering consumer education, and increasing funding for research and treatment.
I wrote in USA Today this morning about why legal sports betting is benefiting Americans and outlined important next steps we can take to protect consumers:
- States must dedicate funding to advance responsible gaming education, problem gambling services and research.
- Stakeholders must continue to evolve commitments as the market matures—like our recent updates to the Responsible Marketing Code for Sports Wagering.
- Rules need to allow for the promotion of a single, national helpline and anyone seeking help through this national resource should receive consistent, quality care.
As the American sports betting market matures, the AGA and our members will continue to raise the bar to ensure the sustainability of this growing segment of our business.
All the best,
Bill
President and CEO
Encouraging Investment Through Sound Tax Policy
We advocate for the industry by working with Congress, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and the Internal Revenue Service to ensure fair industry treatment specific to federal tax regulations and laws.
Increasing Federal Slot Tax Threshold
The $1,200 slot tax reporting threshold was set in 1977 and is overdue
for an update to a higher level to address decades of inflationary effects.
Over the past several years, AGA has worked with allies on the Hill and industry stakeholders to continue to press the IRS to increase the threshold through regulation. In the absence of regulatory action Congress has also stepped up with legislation, the Shifting Limits on Thresholds (SLOT) Act, that would mandate an increase in the threshold.
Repealing Federal Excise Tax on Sports Betting
The Internal Revenue Code currently imposes a federal excise tax of 0.25 percent on the amount of any legal sports wager with a sportsbook, as well as an additional $50 annual head tax for every employee engaged in receiving wagers for or on behalf of any legal sports betting operator. This tax was established in the 1950s, not as a revenue source, but rather as a tool for prosecuting illegal bookmaking operations that didn’t pay the tax.
Currently, this tax serves no dedicated purpose and represents an added operating cost to legal sportsbooks that illegal operators do not pay, further impeding customers’ move away from the predatory, illegal market to safe, regulated sports betting channels. Congress can help empower the success of a safe, regulated marketplace by repealing the federal excise tax that unnecessarily disadvantages legal sports betting operations.
Encouraging Investment Through Sound Tax Policy
Reasonable corporate tax policy allows the gaming industry to continually make investments in our world-class entertainment facilities, experiences, and technologies. Our ability to innovate often requires borrowed capital to accomplish significant projects. It’s critical to preserve interest expense deductibility and ensure the tax benefits attributed to capital and intellectual property expenditures are maintained.
Gaming innovation also depends on robust research and development. Securing a permanent refundable research and development tax credit would permit gaming equipment manufacturers and suppliers to plan for the long term while investing in cutting-edge technologies, particularly in the area of computer software.
WASHINGTON – Today, the American Gaming Association (AGA) released the following statement after Major League Baseball (MLB) announced that MGM Resorts will become the MLB’s official gaming partner.
“Agreements between sports leagues and the gaming industry enable all sports stakeholders to work together to eliminate the illegal sports betting market,” said Sara Slane, senior vice president of public affairs for the American Gaming Association. “With MLB’s announcement today, three major sports leagues now have official sports betting partners – evidence of our continued commitment to protecting the integrity of both consumers and sporting competitions and that contracts remain preferential to statutes in all sports betting deals.”
About AGA: The American Gaming Association is the premier national trade group representing the $261 billion U.S. casino industry, which supports 1.8 million jobs nationwide. AGA members include commercial and tribal casino operators, gaming suppliers and other entities affiliated with the gaming industry. It is the mission of the AGA to achieve sound policies and regulations consistent with casino gaming’s modern appeal and vast economic contributions.
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2021 marked a record-setting recovery for the commercial gaming industry after COVID-19 drove industry revenue to all-time lows in 2020, according to the American Gaming Association’s State of the States 2022 report.
Key Findings
“Our industry’s success goes beyond the bottom line and into communities across the country. The record state and local tax contributions fund vital services from infrastructure and education to healthcare and emergency services" - AGA President And CEO Bill Miller
Following a COVID-driven reshuffling of the highest-grossing commercial gaming markets in 2020, top gaming markets largely returned to their pre-pandemic revenue rankings in 2021.
Meanwhile, the average visitor to a land-based commercial casino in 2021 remained notably younger than prior to the pandemic. In 2021, the mean age of a casino patron was 43.6 years old, versus 49.6 in 2019 and 48.6 in 2018, according to AGA survey data.
All-time high sports betting and iGaming revenue played a significant role in commercial gaming’s record year, with seven new sports betting markets launching in 2021 and two new iGaming markets launching. 2021 commercial sports betting revenue totaled $4.33 billion, a 179.7 percent year-over-year increase, while iGaming revenue for the year grew by 138.9 percent year-over-year to $3.71 billion.
2021 Commercial Sports Betting Revenue
2021 Commercial iGaming Revenue
About State of the States
AGA’s annual State of the States report details the commercial gaming industry’s financial performance, including analyses of each of the 34 jurisdictions with commercial gaming operations in 2021. The report, developed with VIXIO GamblingCompliance, also provides a breakdown of the legality of types of gaming and number of casinos by state, summarizes major gaming policy discussions, and previews opportunities and challenges for the industry. The companion State of Play map provides the report findings, as well as key regulatory and statutory requirements for each state, in an easy-to-use, interactive tool.
WASHINGTON – Today, the American Gaming Association (AGA) released the following statement regarding the formation of the Sports Wagering Integrity Monitoring Association (SWIMA), a not-for-profit organization designed as a collaborative entity to partner with state and tribal gaming regulators; federal, state and tribal law enforcement; and other various stakeholders to detect and discourage fraud and other illegal or unethical activity related to betting on sporting events:
“The formation of the Sports Wagering Integrity Monitoring Association (SWIMA) serves as another important milestone toward realizing the benefits of a legal, regulated sports betting market in the United States, which provides robust consumer protection, increased transparency and additional tax revenues for state and local governments,” said Sara Slane, senior vice president of public affairs for the American Gaming Association. “Today’s announcement comes at a critical time as dozens of states and sovereign tribal nations are poised to pursue legal sports betting in 2019. Moving forward, SWIMA will provide an important hub for all stakeholders to work together, further demonstrating the industry’s commitment to upholding integrity across all facets of a legal, regulated sports betting market.”
About AGA: The American Gaming Association is the premier national trade group representing the $261 billion U.S. casino industry, which supports 1.8 million jobs nationwide. AGA members include commercial and tribal casino operators, gaming suppliers and other entities affiliated with the gaming industry. It is the mission of the AGA to achieve sound policies and regulations consistent with casino gaming’s modern appeal and vast economic contributions.
WASHINGTON – Today, the American Gaming Association (AGA) released the following statement after the National Hockey League (NHL) announced that MGM Resorts will become the NHL’s official sports betting partner.
“Sports betting agreements through contracts enhance the fan and consumer experience,” said Sara Slane, senior vice president of public affairs for the American Gaming Association. “The NHL’s announcement today further strengthens the bond between sports entities and gaming companies, who are each committed to preserving the integrity of the game. As legal sports betting expands, we are encouraged by the growing relationship between gaming companies and the major sports leagues.”
About AGA: The American Gaming Association is the premier national trade group representing the $261 billion U.S. casino industry, which supports 1.8 million jobs nationwide. AGA members include commercial and tribal casino operators, gaming suppliers and other entities affiliated with the gaming industry. It is the mission of the AGA to achieve sound policies and regulations consistent with casino gaming’s modern appeal and vast economic contributions.
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Washington, D.C. – Greenwood Racing Inc., the parent company of Parx Casino® and betPARX®, has joined the American Gaming Association’s (AGA) Have a Game Plan.® Bet Responsibly.™ campaign.
Through the partnership, Parx will promote responsible gaming consumer education at its sportsbooks, through its betPARX app, and on its digital channels.
“Responsible gaming is an integral part of Greenwood Racing’s sports betting strategy,” said Parx Chief Marketing Officer Marc Oppenheimer. “We’re excited to extend our longstanding commitment to responsible gaming consumer education through this partnership with the AGA.”
Launched in 2019, the Have A Game Plan campaign unites the broader sports betting ecosystem around a common consumer education platform, focusing on four principles of responsible wagering:
- Set a budget and stick to it.
- Keep it social—sports betting is a form of entertainment.
- Know the odds.
- Play with trusted, regulated operators.
“The AGA is thrilled to welcome Parx Casino® and betPARX® as Have A Game Plan campaign partners,” said AGA Senior Vice President Casey Clark. “The expansion of legal sports betting options—to 130 million Americans today—reinforces the importance of bringing together as many voices as possible to educate consumers on responsible wagering.”
Parx joins campaign partners across the sports, media, and gaming landscape, including Barstool Sportsbook, BetMGM, DraftKings, Delaware North, Entain, FanDuel, Global Payments, MGM Resorts International, MSG Network, Monumental Sports and Entertainment, NASCAR, New York Knicks, New York Jets, New York Rangers, NHL, Nuvei, Penn National Gaming, PGA TOUR, Rush Street Interactive, SeventySix Capital, Sightline Payments, Sinclair Broadcast Group, UFC, USFL, Vegas Golden Knights and Washington Commanders.
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WASHINGTON – American Gaming Association (AGA) President and CEO Geoff Freeman issued the following statement following today’s passage of the “Integrated Resorts” law by the Japanese parliament.
“Today, Japan took a giant step toward strengthening its economy, attracting international travelers and implementing stringent gaming regulation that protects consumers and eliminates criminal activity. In the years ahead, Japanese communities will realize the many integrated resorts-related benefits that have enhanced dozens of major destinations around the globe.
“The gaming industry is excited to help Japan achieve its economic goals and eager to partner with the governments and people of Japan to build a world class gaming market and regulatory system.”
About AGA: The American Gaming Association is the premier national trade group representing the $261 billion U.S. casino industry, which supports 1.8 million jobs nationwide. AGA members include commercial and tribal casino operators, as well as suppliers and other entities affiliated with the gaming industry. It is the mission of the AGA to achieve sound policies and regulations consistent with casino gaming’s modern appeal and vast economic contributions.