Tuesday marked the second day of an important week for the American Gaming Association. The AGA, which is headquartered in Washington, D.C., launched the 11th annual Responsible Gaming Education Week (RGEW), which takes place between now and Friday, August 8th. The goal of the RGEW is to encourage casino “employees to begin a conversation about responsible gaming at home, on the job and in the community,” according to a press release distributed by the organization. AGA President and CEO Frank Fahrenkopf commented, “Responsible gaming is not just an issue for casinos, it’s an issue for the whole community.”
The AGA has a veritable “who’s who” of major industry companies as its members: Harrah’s Entertainment, Boyd Gaming Corporation, MGM Mirage, Wynn Resorts, and Ameristar Casinos represent just a handful of its clientele. The AGA also caters to financial services companies such as Bank of America and Goldman Sachs. It’s one of the largest industry lobbying groups and seeks to focus Congressmen on “addressing federal legislative and regulatory issues affecting its members, such as federal taxation, regulatory issues, and travel and tourism matters,” according to its website.
Promotional materials in its member casinos as well as trinkets for staff members highlight just a few of the ways the AGA is spreading the word about the awareness week. Individual casinos have also stepped up their efforts to inform the general public. For example, Ameristar Casinos will intertwine responsible gaming messages into the telephone system’s on-hold offering. At New York New York Casino in Las Vegas, “the property’s ‘Responsible Gaming Prize Patrol’ will be walking around the property to catch someone orange banded. If the Prize Patrol can catch an employee wearing their orange [awareness] wristband and they can correctly answer a question about responsible gaming, they will receive a prize and be mentioned in a future employee newsletter.” The orange wristbands will assuredly attract attention and curiosity from Ameristar’s patrons.
The RGEW was launched in 1998. Fahrenkopf noted, “We’re proud of the efforts put forth by both our companies and their employees to further public education and awareness of responsible gaming and spread the word about how everyone, everyday can keep it fun.” Training materials available on the AGA’s website include word searches, cryptograms, and a slew of quizzes to make learning about responsible gaming more interesting.
The AGA also spearheads the annual State of the States report, which is a comprehensive look at the latest trends in the world of gambling. The last 10 State of the State reports can be found on the AGA’s website.
If you dig deep, you’ll also run across the AGA’s official stance on internet gambling. The organization blasted Jim McDermott’s HR 6501, the Investing in Our Human Resources Act, because of its control at the federal level: “Any Internet gambling legislation must meet three tests to gain the support of the AGA: 1) The right of states to regulate gaming must be protected. 2) It must not create competitive advantages or disadvantages between and among commercial casinos, Native American casinos, state lotteries and pari-mutuel wagering operations; and 3) No form of gaming that currently is legal should be made illegal.” McDermott’s bill failed to meet the first test. The AGA came out in a Las Vegas Review Journal article against the new piece of legislation.
So check out the AGA’s website and learn a little bit more about its Responsible Gaming Education Week.
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