The University of Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV) is preparing to offer the first ever master’s degree program in gambling law and regulation, adding to an established list of courses related to the gambling industry that the university already offers. The new program, which will be launched in the fall semester of 2015, should give students the chance to ingratiate themselves into the inner workings of the gambling industry.
The program is a no-brainer for a university like UNLV. Not only is it uniquely situated to offer the program but it’s got a treasure trove of gambling law experts in their own backyard, seeing as the school is located right smack in the middle of Las Vegas.
“It makes sense to have a graduate program in gaming in a city that is so well known for gaming and that has such expertise,” Ngai Pindell, an associate dean of academic affairs at the Boyd School of Law and the one to lead the new program, told the Vegas Seven.
A big reason behind the formation of the program is grounded on the belief that the gambling industry is always evolving in one form or another. Pindell says that program will have a curriculum that will offer a wide variety of classes to “highlight the depth of gaming law and policy that’s needed to effectively practice in that industry.”
Classes focusing on online gaming, sports betting, and data privacy will all be offered, as well as anti-money laundering, problem-gaming research and treatment, and related studies that include employment law, intellectual property law and administrative law.
The program’s objective is to breed a new generation of legal minds with a particular expertise in the gambling industry. Pindell hopes that students will go on to work in casinos’ in-house legal departments, law firms that represent casinos or businesses related to the industry, or for regulators in the US and possibly around the world.
