Members of the global gaming industry are currently gathered at the International Masters of Gaming Law (IMGL) summit in Scottsdale, Arizona to discuss the changing landscape of the industry as a whole. Organizers IMGL have assembled a “who’s who” of guest speakers at the event and discussion on the opening day centered on a number of topics.
Given the conference is in the U.S.A., one of those discussed was the state of the industry in this part of the world and where it’s headed. Over the past year, regulation has been the word everyone has been struggling to create from their alphabetti spaghetti. Unsurprisingly, one of the discussions at yesterday’s conference was looking at regulations in a number of U.S. states, including Maryland, New Jersey and Florida.
Brad Polizzano tweeted that the conference was told the proposed New Jersey iGaming bill “will be substantially amended on Senate Floor on May 31, scheduled for a vote in late June”. A PokerNews article added that Senator Lesniak, who sponsors the bill, expects it to be up and running “sometime in the fall” and not the original date of September 1. As well as letting Joyzee residents gamble online, the bill will permit the state to enter into compacts with other states – or countries – to make the player pool larger.
Discussions moved on to claims by Florida gaming industry lawyer Mark Dunbar that Disney has most to do with casinos not advancing in the state. Jennifer Webb tweeted “Disney is a powerful force against destination-resort gaming moving in FL” according to Dunbar. It confirms that casinos will have a very tough time of things in the state as long as Disney is there. Bad news: they ain’t leaving any time soon. Dunbar also added that litigation could affect the industry’s fututre in the state with and “court decisions ahouls be issued by Nov”.
IGML’s first session also heard Maryland is seeing fewer companies interested due to overexorbitant taxation. Maryland Lottery Director Stephen Martino told the conference “High tax rate in MD has limited gaming options and companies interested in the MD market,” according to a tweet by Webb. Martino did later add that a “special session” could be initiated in order to advance gaming industey regulations.
