The persistence of illegal gambling in the United States is a major threat to the casino industry that must be addressed, the head of a major casino lobbying group said today.
Geoff Freeman, president of the American Gaming Association, kicked off the first full day of the industry’s annual Global Gaming Expo, or G2E, with remarks that focused heavily on illegal gambling and his organization’s attempts to fight it.
Freeman said that despite laudable economic strides casinos have recently made, some policymakers hold outdated views about them, partly due to the popularity of “another industry that operates in the shadows.”
As an example, Freeman pointed to the situation in Massachusetts, where the mayor of Boston and the state attorney general have raised objections to Wynn Resorts’ plans to build a casino. Freeman said the public officials have found “every roadblock they can possibly find to slow down casino development,” despite the sizable economic investment casinos bring.
It’s illegal gambling, Freeman suggested, that fuels policymakers’ negative views about casinos.
“Illegal gambling affects the credibility of our industry, and that credibility is directly tied to the public policy that we confront,” he said.
The gaming association already revealed plans this year to address the issue through an initiative in partnership with law enforcement. Through that initiative, the association today announced the results of research that examined one year’s worth of federal convictions involving illegal gambling.
The analysis, conducted by professor Jay Albanese of Virginia Commonwealth University, found that illegal gambling businesses were responsible for more than 80 people in 23 states being charged and convicted in 2014. Online and offshore betting produced the greatest number of cases, according to the analysis, but a significant amount also came from gambling that was part of larger criminal enterprises.
“It’s not the most high-profile crime,” said Ed Davis, a former Boston police commissioner, at a roundtable convened by the association this afternoon. “But the truth of the matter is, this is what oils the machine.”
Freeman told audience members in his speech this morning that they can help his group’s efforts by spreading a positive perception of casinos — becoming “proselytizers about gaming,” he said.
Immediately after Freeman’s remarks, conference attendees heard more about the positive effects of gaming in another way. Jeffrey Ma, whose background as a card-counting blackjack player from MIT inspired the book “Bringing Down the House” and the movie “21,” used personal anecdotes to demonstrate the practical implications of his experiences.
Ma said card counting — which is legal — shows the importance of using data instead of relying on gut feelings.
He spoke about how such a data-driven mindset can assist with making difficult choices: For example, he said it once helped him decide that his mother, who suffered from a stroke, should receive surgery that was risky but had a better prognosis.
Speaking more directly about the gaming industry, Ma later told the G2E audience that innovation will sometimes require upsetting people and that they should not fall victim to “loss aversion.”
“The idea of losing scares us, and so we make bad decisions based on avoiding loss,” Ma said.
G2E continues at the Sands Expo Center through Thursday.