California Gambling Control Commission (CGCC) member Richard Schuetz is ditching the Golden State to take up a similar job in Bermuda.
On Monday, Bermuda Casino Gaming Commission (BCGC) chairman Alan Dunch announced that Schuetz was stepping down from his California position effective immediately and would assume his new role as BCGC executive director on Tuesday, Sept. 1.
Dunch said Schuetz’s years of experience in the gaming industry, which includes acting as CEO of the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and a stint on the board of gaming equipment supplier Shuffle Master, would be of great use to the BCGC as it prepares to “introduce casinos to Bermuda.”
The BCGC was formed in February of this year, two months after the country passed the Casino Gaming Act 2014. The legislation, which took years to garner sufficient legislative support, calls for a maximum of three casinos to be built in Bermuda.
Dunch’s statement included a quote from Schuetz, who called the introduction of casinos “a new chapter of Bermuda’s tourism and economic development.” Schuetz said it was “a true honor to be entrusted with such an important task.”
Schuetz, who complained about the CGCC’s chronic underfunding during the California state Assembly’s online poker hearing in June, is the latest Golden State gaming regulator to fly the coop. Richard Lopes, who headed the CGCC, abruptly resigned his post in May, just weeks after Commissioner Tina Littleton announced her own resignation.
Both Lopes and Littleton were dealing with conflict of interest allegations regarding regulatory investigations into alleged profit skimming at San Diego cardroom Casino M8trix. In January, Schuetz warned that public perception of corruption at the state’s regulatory agencies could negatively affect legislators’ ability to pass online poker legislation. Only Schuetz knows whether that same perception convinced him to jump ship.
