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A live episode of the Martin Lycka Safe Bet Show, with guest David Rebuck, Director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement. The show was recorded at this month's Player Protection Symposium in New York City.
Martin Lycka has been one of the driving forces behind player protection initiatives through his work with global gambling operator Entain. In these podcasts, he speaks with some of the leading lights in the battle against problem gambling.
NB - All views expressed in this podcast are personal and do not necessarily represent the views of Entain.
00:00:07:12 - 00:00:28:10
Speaker 1
I have the utmost pleasure and privilege to welcome. I appreciate I always say that. But this man genuinely requires no introduction. If you don't know him, you might get to know him, especially if any chance. If you're not licensed, you are supposed to be licensed because otherwise he and his team would be after you without any further ado, then.
00:00:29:03 - 00:00:37:10
Speaker 1
Ladies and gentlemen, today's guest is director David REBACK. It's great to have you on the show. Thank you very much for accepting the invitation.
00:00:38:14 - 00:01:07:08
Speaker 2
Well, it's great to be here. And that's good to know that I'm number 51 on the list of interviewees. So, again, I'm happy to be here and we have a lot to talk about and I'm really excited to educate people in the room about what we do in New Jersey, how we do it, and why we believe that it's going to be truly beneficial to the rest of the country in the gaming area.
00:01:07:08 - 00:01:15:22
Speaker 2
And with any luck, maybe it will be beneficial to foreign countries who also are in this business of gaming.
00:01:16:16 - 00:01:42:18
Speaker 1
They've always been number one on the list. We just have to make our way for your comms team for the record. But I shall digress. Here's my chichi have questions for David and there will be a time for Q&A throughout and then most definitely towards the end. So please don't be shy. You've earned a B.A. degree from the Gettysburg College in 74, a master's degree from the University of Vermont in 78.
00:01:42:18 - 00:02:08:17
Speaker 1
And then on top of that, a law degree from the Boyden, the university in 86. For 23 years, you have served as a deputy attorney general in the Great Garden State of New Jersey, specializing in policy guidance and regulatory reform. So that is, ladies and gentlemen, the background. Of course, those were the pre-Internet gaming and sports betting times for obvious reasons.
00:02:08:17 - 00:02:20:20
Speaker 1
So to start it off, would you have ever fought for those 23 years that one day and today is the day, not only today it would be a top billing as a responsible gambling event?
00:02:21:22 - 00:02:22:08
Speaker 2
No.
00:02:23:06 - 00:02:24:08
Speaker 1
Thanks for the honest answer.
00:02:24:08 - 00:02:57:18
Speaker 2
That's when. When? By reading that record, you can all appreciate that I am old and I've been around a long period of time, and when I first was a deputy attorney general, I didn't even know what the Division of Gaming Enforcement was. It was back in 19, the mid eighties, 1988, when I was brought on as a deputy attorney general in the state of New Jersey to work on attorney general Kerry-Edwards staff.
00:02:58:19 - 00:03:29:08
Speaker 2
And as time went on, there were issues in the gaming industry that would come to the attorney general. But in those early years of gaming regulation, the industry was extremely strong. State have an awfully obviously on gaming with Nevada and it was a go go time for the city of Atlantic City and the operators in general to be fast forward.
00:03:29:08 - 00:04:22:15
Speaker 2
The first time I really got involved with gaming was under Attorney General Debbie Ports. For those who didn't know Debbie, she was not only attorney general, but she was counsel to Governor Whitman and ultimately became Supreme Court justice for the state of New Jersey. And she was a brilliant woman and a wonderful attorney general. And the reason I got first involved with gaming under her was because we were now entering that period of time in late nineties, 2000, where the industry was feeling the angst of overregulation, burdensome regulations, and felt that after 20 plus years of operating, that things should be changing.
00:04:22:15 - 00:04:43:16
Speaker 2
So there was a meeting of the Casino Control Commission staff and the DG staff and the industry in Atlantic City. And when the Attorney General looked around the room, she said, Well, we need somebody go to Atlantic City and represent me in this meeting. Nobody raised their hand and since I was the low man on the totem pole, I got to go to Atlantic City.
00:04:44:06 - 00:05:27:08
Speaker 2
So having done some research in preparation for the meeting, I went down and it was a disaster. The the industry hated the regulators. The regulators hated each other. The debates were overwhelmingly oppressive. Nothing was accomplished. And I remember going back to the attorney general and said, I said, these people are crazy. They can't get along or anything. And at the end of the day, it's going to have to take legislation to move this change along because nobody wants to cooperate or communicate with each other to do things any differently than the already be done.
00:05:29:03 - 00:05:57:15
Speaker 2
And I saw something from Debbie then thereafter one of the primary leaders of the Senate at that time put in a bill, made a number of really extensive changes that she would not accept. And in that meeting with that senator, she made it very clear to them in a very forceful way that if you're going to push for all these changes, I'm going to oppose it and I'm going to use one word to oppose it, integrity.
00:05:58:06 - 00:06:20:10
Speaker 2
And I'm telling the country, if I'm telling the state population we can't assure integrity of this industry, you're going to have to live with that. Well, the changes were made to what the attorney general wanted, and that was first round. The changes that would happen. So fast forward, that was my first experience with gaming and valuable lessons from another attorney general.
00:06:20:18 - 00:06:27:10
Speaker 2
I recognize when I then was ultimately appointed by Governor Christie in 2010.
00:06:28:07 - 00:06:54:10
Speaker 1
Indeed. So we're going to fast forward to February 2010 when you were assigned to Governor Christie's office as a senior policy adviser, and you effectively let the state of New Jersey on its path to legalizing Internet gaming first and then sports betting. And arguably it was done at a world record pace because it took you and your staff only nine months for the record, nine months.
00:06:54:14 - 00:07:18:07
Speaker 1
The regulators may want to draw some inspiration if they rail to implement that law. So my first question in that regard, if I may, now, the Grand Old Party governors such as Governor Christie, they're not necessarily that well-known for the love of Internet gaming. So would you mind walking us through their New Jersey regulatory dynamics from that particular perspective?
00:07:19:02 - 00:07:42:13
Speaker 2
Well, if you don't know the it's an attorney general appointment to head gaming is made by the governor of the state. And then Governor Christie appointed me and I've served under another governor, Phil Murphy. And I would say this about both governors and what you have to understand. These governors have different personalities, but one thing they have in common, they're tremendous leaders.
00:07:43:17 - 00:08:06:18
Speaker 2
They're open minded to suggestions, and they always want to do what's best interest of the state of New Jersey. The people live in the state of Jersey to improve the quality of life for the people in the state of New Jersey. And they listen. They listen, they ask heavy duty questions and ultimately they'll make a decision. And as a middle manager that I am or others, you have to implement that.
00:08:07:09 - 00:08:31:12
Speaker 2
And it's a wonderful thing when you have leaders like that who not only expect you to implement and deliver on the promises they've made, but they give you a commitment to support you in everything you do in order to make that happen. So from that perspective, the state of New Jersey has been well covered by two excellent governors over the last almost 12 years.
00:08:32:23 - 00:09:01:17
Speaker 2
But that being said, the question about why I was New Jersey so ready to embrace the risk of Internet gaming and take on the federal government and sports wagering. And I think you have to go back in time. But the state of New Jersey, you can if you remember I said that initially casino gambling in the state of New Jersey was a boom and was so successful, but there was no competition.
00:09:02:03 - 00:09:29:15
Speaker 2
And with the success of casino gambling in the United States and Nevada and as well as New Jersey, other states started copying it. And all of a sudden you had this massive explosion of casino gambling, legalized gambling in the United States. That being said, now you have a lot of competition, a lot of saturation, a lot of choices for consumers and the industry was struggling in New Jersey to compete.
00:09:31:01 - 00:09:53:13
Speaker 2
And there were three things that were causing our problems. One, I remember I said Debbie Ports dealt with the one issue we never solved over regulation. We never stopped it. At that point in time. There were small changes being made. The industry had a very strong argument that it was being restricted in innovation and expansion and doing things they needed to do in order to compete against neighboring states.
00:09:54:04 - 00:10:21:14
Speaker 2
Those changes had to be made that regulatory reform is commitment from Governor Christie, and that was a mandate in the legislation that was passed under his leadership. Second, there was enough of a great understanding that you have to be different. You need to diversify your offerings. There is all the BS debate. That's the entertainment industry of gambling. You have entertainment restaurants, you have other things going on.
00:10:21:14 - 00:10:52:08
Speaker 2
But gambling itself is still the primary driver in New Jersey, and the diversity of gambling would come about through new product. New product being online controlled by the casino industry, having a license to do it, having a monopoly on that, as well as sports wagering. And then last thing is, there had to be a commitment from the industry to invest in their property, invest in their employees, and to live up to their benefit of the bargain with the state.
00:10:52:08 - 00:11:10:10
Speaker 2
While the statement that the things that have to do and so that was always the approach that was taken. And yes, there was a great risk that was taken because anything know about the public policy and you heard that today earlier, there's a real fear of Internet gaming by people who just don't know how it's to be regulated.
00:11:10:20 - 00:11:40:01
Speaker 2
There's a fear of change. There's a fear of failure, there's a fear of fraud. And there's a fear of horrible populations or underage people not being able to handle that type of opportunity if it's offered on a commercial basis today. Still, there's a lot of people don't want to interact gaming and don't want to Internet sports wagering. We have seven states right now that have Internet casino gambling.
00:11:40:01 - 00:12:20:08
Speaker 2
I think I would call more, but we'll talk about that later because it's hidden by state lotteries doing it already. But there certainly there's seven states that have Internet casino gaming and there's probably about 20 states or 21 states now that have Internet sports wagering. So it's still very much in its infancy stages. And the challenges that I have highlighted about those who are uneducated, those who don't want to take a risk, which has nothing to do about the education, they don't want to do the research, don't want to put the hard work in to regulate it and oversee it and monitor it in a very, very extensive way, are not going to want to
00:12:20:08 - 00:12:58:05
Speaker 2
take the risk. And New Jersey had to take the risk because if you go back to what I said, the risk was that our sustainable gaming industry in Atlantic City was going to collapse. And if it collapsed, the economic development, the jobs, the opportunities that were supporting South Jersey would be very detrimental. And it happened a little bit as this growth went on with the Internet and sports, because we closed four casinos, we closed four of the 11 casinos there.
00:12:58:05 - 00:13:29:08
Speaker 2
And I will assure you, having been the leader overseeing that, that that is a very depressing day. And thousands of people are out of jobs and have no idea what they're going to do with the rest of their life. So gaming with the expansion and the changes were made, were done to prevent that from expanding beyond what it did.
00:13:29:14 - 00:13:46:05
Speaker 2
And today I feel very strongly that we're in a very good position in South Jersey and in the state for the gambling industry, living up to its bargain of what it has to do for economic development, state jobs and being entertainment industry.
00:13:46:05 - 00:14:25:19
Speaker 1
Yes, indeed. And we will come on to talking about the market at large and the discrepancy between seven states online casino and 21, if not a few more have sports betting. But in the meantime, let's talk about PA because they say everything you've done, we've already talked about. They also happen to have been at the heart of one of the if not the biggest battle the industry has fought in this country e to repeal possible that's prevented legalization of sports betting from the nation would have appeared at once again at the beginning of the process.
00:14:25:19 - 00:14:56:04
Speaker 1
Sports betting proponents, most of them Jersey boys, really would have stood next to no chance to accomplish that, by no means mean feat. Yet together, if a bunch of those legendary Jersey Jersey boys by now may be free, may have left the room at SBP free you. Hello. You have triumphed. So what did it feel like on the fateful day of the 14th of May 2018?
00:14:56:04 - 00:15:06:10
Speaker 1
Would you mind walking us through your feelings? Guess what was happening? And then you set yourself a very, very tight timeline to get it all done in your state?
00:15:06:20 - 00:15:41:09
Speaker 2
Well, again, that there's could be a whole book written on what happened in that seven year period of time with so many Jersey Boys, as you said, being an integral part in working together with the common goal of overturning past. But they had extremely powerful group of leagues teams. We were fighting billionaires and the federal government and the NCAA which is mom and apple pie to overturn past the which again was, as you all know, was the primary sponsor.
00:15:41:09 - 00:16:15:07
Speaker 2
That bill was Senator Bill Bradley from the State of New Jersey. It was really an exciting time. But when you add in, you know, when I say teamwork, you have two governors again who were the driving force to make this happen. And you had people like Dennis Risen and Senator Lesniak and Senator Steve Sweeney and a host of others who agreed cooperatively to work together to overturn a statute that many in the industry felt we were not going to overturn.
00:16:16:02 - 00:16:47:06
Speaker 2
And I can remember one of the larger casinos had their constitutional law expert said, you're going to lose. And so we're not going to invest any time, money or energy to prepare for refresh for sports wagering in New Jersey said okay but remember this unlike Internet gaming where we gave everybody an equal plan and said in nine months on this day, you all have the ability to go live immediately if your product is approved.
00:16:48:05 - 00:17:20:22
Speaker 2
When it came to sports wagering, when we win that case, we're going live as fast as we can because I made a commitment to a lot of people saying we will have the regulations done. If you have the law done, we will have the regulations done, will have them immediately adopted as an emergency regulations, and you'll be able to take a wager within days of us winning the Supreme Court case, that casino didn't get up and operating for a while and they weren't the only one who wasn't ready.
00:17:21:18 - 00:17:53:10
Speaker 2
And I look back at that thinking, we've fought this fight for so long to win this case, which will have tremendous opportunities for other states beyond New Jersey, that you're not ready you're not ready to take this new business opportunity and expand what you have offered throughout the country. And the lesson we learned was there were others ready, and those others ready were coming from overseas and they came fast.
00:17:54:06 - 00:18:23:03
Speaker 2
Every B-to-B, every B2C company was coming in for sports wagering and they had to get licensed and we had to turn them around. But again, remember who was holding the license? Three racetracks, nine casinos, and Monmouth Park with Dennis Drazen, the first one to go. They're ready. Bang out the door. One of the other casinos quickly adopted probably a room that size with that dwarves that that's our sportsbook right now.
00:18:23:04 - 00:18:49:15
Speaker 2
We're going to start taking bets. We approved it, but it was it wasn't exactly a great customer friendly, personalized experience on sports wagering. No one was ready to take Internet on the sports. No one was up to. Companies came in really fast at the end. And on August 1st, we took Internet sports wagering for two companies and on DraftKings now everybody goes, Oh, well, they're already doing it.
00:18:49:15 - 00:19:23:02
Speaker 2
Yeah, they had fantasy sports play already. They had a database already established. FanDuel was virtually bankrupt and founder was bought out as a B2C retail company by Paddy Power. Betfair is the brains behind FanDuel. Companies from Europe were coming in ad supported with a structure platform and to this day those two have got to jump on everybody else because of the technology background they have and their leadership in this area.
00:19:23:10 - 00:19:45:18
Speaker 2
And they've done really well for themselves. Now. They've done well in expanding across the United States. The question is, can they do well making money and having the opportunity to sustain themselves in the long run? And everybody knows what their investments are and where their expenses are going right now, what their opportunities are. So that's how we worked it.
00:19:46:01 - 00:20:09:08
Speaker 2
And, you know, we started out slow. My goal was to pass Vegas. I mean, all the Nevada companies, I wanted to pass them. So bad. I wanted to have New Jersey number one. And it didn't happen that way. We had this gradual build up. Bang, bang, bang, bang. And we're still behind Nevada. And I remember John Brennan, great writer in New Jersey.
00:20:09:08 - 00:20:33:00
Speaker 2
And when are you going to pass? Someday, I said, I don't know. But soon as we pass them right. An article and say we passed them and then we're done. Because if I slip behind them again, I don't care. So we finally passed them. It took us a while. Our growth was very gradual. Unlike today, when new states come in, they can hit the ground running and they can.
00:20:33:07 - 00:20:57:02
Speaker 2
Like you see in New York, New York is blue tip the worse off everybody when that first month of operations and they didn't have to have that gradual build up. But that's the nature of where we are today in the country. There are so many companies that are approved and license and operational and there's no integrity issue with these companies operationally.
00:20:57:10 - 00:21:24:09
Speaker 2
They're stretched thin. Their technology is not as robust as you'd want it to be. We fight them constantly to embrace more technology, but they'll get there. It's just that it's a growth industry. And you have to remember, it's only been out there for four years legally. And we've had people who started as customer service agents for sports wagering company, and they're now supervisors four years later.
00:21:24:09 - 00:21:44:02
Speaker 2
And pretty soon they're going to be vice presidents and you're looking at them going, Oh, they are, my God, they're really shorthanded. We're finding quality people. We didn't have the buildup. And you weren't bringing in people from Europe to run the companies and they had to train the people here in the United States. So it's been a real challenge, but it's been good.
00:21:44:19 - 00:22:08:21
Speaker 1
Oh, that's no doubt that the you and the other team being the true trailblazers and your if not beat and most definitely one of the well let's lead and regulators and as far as I'm concerned the leading one in the U.S. so what would be your take and you've already touched upon it talking about hatred, I believe. What is your take on the current state of play, of gambling and sports betting regulation in the US and around the world?
00:22:09:04 - 00:22:18:09
Speaker 1
And what kind of relationship do you have with your past, the likes of the UK, perhaps Ontario and most definitely across this country?
00:22:20:00 - 00:22:45:11
Speaker 2
Why never speak poorly of another regulator? I've said that before. I've stolen that line from one of our presidents. Always speak positively of other regulators, but we're very diverse. Group. Do you know anything about the United States? Every state has its own goals and objectives, tweaks on what we do. And it's it's very difficult to have commonality in our operations.
00:22:45:11 - 00:23:23:07
Speaker 2
But that being said, there's certain areas that we have uniform commitment to do better things with. And I, I think every regulator I've dealt with in the United States has that sense of wanting to do what's right for their state and wanting to be successful in overseeing the industry and not allowing for a scandal or some kind of complete breakdown in how we operate when we do get together.
00:23:23:07 - 00:23:49:06
Speaker 2
And we've been very fortunate in University of Nevada. Las Vegas has a great program for hosting regulators. And we get to share and we do get to share. We have we have really good correspondents been doing one another. When I look at things in New Jersey, though, we have to act now. And that's always been my message to my staff.
00:23:49:06 - 00:24:19:03
Speaker 2
I have a great staff, but they know we have to act now. We're holding ourselves up to be the pinnacle of regulation in this country for retail, sports and online. And if you put yourself on the pinnacle, you better do everything in your possibility to stay there. And so a lot of what we've done recently has been taking what we learned from developing Internet gaming in 2013.
00:24:19:21 - 00:24:46:06
Speaker 2
It's almost ten years now that it's been operational and learning lessons from what we've done, but listening to others in the industry, in the media and who are outside leaders who give us suggestions and recommendations on how to be better in many areas. And I'm talking about people I've worked with, like Chris Grove, Steve Roddick, James kills me.
00:24:46:07 - 00:25:15:02
Speaker 2
They're on the media side or industry side, and they're not operators, but they have opinions and suggestions and we listen to them and we research them and then we go even further. And you got guys like Bill Pascrell, he's always in our ears as a lobbyist. Right. But he has some good ideas every now and then. Okay. And so when we then we have to sit down and implement them.
00:25:15:02 - 00:25:38:15
Speaker 2
And the best example I can give you to what is in port in New Jersey right now, KYC standards. We changed that last October. We take that up so much that the industry just wasn't following our directions and they came up with terms like fuzzy math and all this kind of B.S. And we're like, No, KYC is an exact match.
00:25:38:23 - 00:26:05:21
Speaker 2
And we already went to FinCEN and got the ability for FinCEN to let you use the for last, which is Social Security number, so that when FinCEN audits you and you only collect that you're good, but you have to have that backed up with the full mine. So enough it is fuzzy math stuff, it's an exact match and if there's not exact match persons not going to be able to get online and you're going to have to deal with them through other mechanisms to determine what their true identity is, and if so, be it, they're not on there.
00:26:05:21 - 00:26:37:01
Speaker 2
Don't have a right to gamble online. The second thing, cybersecurity. Cybersecurity. I was so tired of dealing with integrity, fraud, credential, stuffing de dos attacks enough how we worked with all the state police, cybersecurity, the cyber security experts in the state of New Jersey. And we said, okay, what can we do to reduce the risk of these frauds or attempted frauds against the operators in the gambling industry?
00:26:37:01 - 00:27:03:22
Speaker 2
I came up with a lot of suggestions implemented two factor authentication device tracking so that we and everybody in this room knows there's really no privacy. When you're gambling online, we know everything about you, everything. And we have to protect our identity and protect the consumer and do the best we can so that they're not a victim of a crime.
00:27:04:09 - 00:27:32:08
Speaker 2
The third thing we Bill talked about a little more and I'm sure knows about it, our new responsible gaming initiative. I'm really excited about this. I guess I'll probably go into detail on it now. Essentially, it had an aha moment last year. Everybody in this room knows and the commercial side of the house, the casinos and the gambling industry tracks your best players.
00:27:32:13 - 00:28:02:06
Speaker 2
Everything they're doing then marketing people know everything they're doing. They have data on them, they know everything. They have the cards and the slot machines. They had the VIP players, every data element in the bricks and mortar industry on the casino industry. Guess what? I don't own everybody. Everybody. And the aha moment was hearing from some companies in Europe who said, you know, we want to do more.
00:28:02:06 - 00:28:31:04
Speaker 2
And responsible gambling have been done before. And what we want to do is use the data on everybody, build algorithms, monitor their behavior and intervene through all steps of the process. You can start at a stage one, an education or a counseling. You can have a just build up based on the behaviors. So we went to the industry, met with them for over a six months.
00:28:31:12 - 00:28:55:22
Speaker 2
That is common. You platforms all of you and have a responsible gaming New Jersey system and that is you're tracking everybody's play. Want to know your algorithms? We want to know when you're going to go in an interview and how you're going to watch for risky behavior there. Do it now. They do it now. But who does it now?
00:28:56:22 - 00:29:20:01
Speaker 2
The marketing staff. You don't really trust them? I never have trusted them a lot. Okay. To the consumer, the consumer agent, the person who's creating your account, helping you get through, it's not automated. They see some behavior and they go, oh, I think this person has a problem. This person might have a mental health problem. This person might be think, what am I going to do about it?
00:29:20:01 - 00:29:40:09
Speaker 2
Well, I got this call coming in because I can't log into his Internet account. I got to take that. Now, you can have responsible gaming people who are on your staff who are going to be part of watching what goes on in your platform. You outsource it to a nonprofit. I really don't care what you're going to have.
00:29:40:09 - 00:30:17:08
Speaker 2
Dedicated, responsible gaming people whose job is to watch and educate, train and if needed, intervene and cut them off. Take them out. You exclude them, they may self exclude themselves. That is something the industry has never done before to this extreme and we set a deadline of implementing it in six months. I haven't missed a deadline yet, but this one I'm a little concerned that might miss it because it is very novel.
00:30:18:12 - 00:30:41:21
Speaker 2
Now, I will tell you this, I have no doubt that certain platforms will deliver in that timeframe. None, but will they all? Because we have over 30 platforms. And if they if they can't, what am I going to do as a regulator? I don't know. Don't ask me. I really don't know yet. My goal is to work with them and have this done.
00:30:42:03 - 00:31:10:06
Speaker 2
And if need be, we will call meetings upon meetings, upon meetings to have them come in and to prove to us that they're safeguards and protection systems are working the way that we want to by embracing technology as an early warning system and having resources apply to deal in a personalized way with the customer. And I think that's a key.
00:31:10:06 - 00:31:42:02
Speaker 2
Personalized what? I get upset at the industry occasionally because they say your marketing staff is always trying to have products that they believe the consumer will like and utilize or programs the consumer will like and utilize. I'm like, you need to understand what that consumer wants and what the consumer enjoys and how the consumer believes that they're being protected and you are working in their best interests.
00:31:42:02 - 00:32:13:17
Speaker 2
So the better companies will do that. And that's why I have a running joke with my staff and they know that I get very upset at times with marketing people. And part of that is that my fourth initiative, which is we're reviewing now, just starting, we've told industry this, is that we want a better sense of what's going on with advertising, using content, volume targeting.
00:32:14:08 - 00:32:42:03
Speaker 2
And we also want a better sense of the promotions to make sure that they're not the center of many in the room. Now that when we first had Internet gaming, every promotion that was issued by anybody, even online gaming was reviewed, improved by us hundreds. We'd have thousands come in and my staff hated me, hated me. Why are we doing this?
00:32:42:03 - 00:32:59:17
Speaker 2
We shouldn't do this. They know how to do this now. And after beat me down on the ground after two years, I finally caved and said, We won't look at all of them, but we're going to do an audit. And if I see any that I don't like on TV or you see any you don't like on the Internet, we're going to investigate it.
00:33:01:09 - 00:33:25:14
Speaker 2
I'm not so sure that was good decision by name. I still get people telling me sometimes what they get are deceptive and misleading, and so we've been dealing with them on a piecemeal basis, but I recognize that the state we need to do a better job. And when you look at you look at what other state, not states, what other jurisdictions are starting to do.
00:33:25:22 - 00:33:53:12
Speaker 2
I get compliments. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, even though they don't even have the American sports wagering, they have a really good review system and some really great white papers on this area. The province of Ontario, kudos to them, had done a really nice job in tackling this last issue and I think there's lessons to be learned from what they have begun to promulgate.
00:33:54:08 - 00:34:19:01
Speaker 2
And then the last thing I would give credit to the industry, the American Gaming Association, and under the leadership of Bill Miller and Jeff Freeman, they have done an outstanding job in my mind, of taking the social issues and the concerns that are important to regulators made them priorities and trying to get the industry to uniformly agree on certain goals and objectives.
00:34:19:01 - 00:34:46:04
Speaker 2
And that is, in my mind as a regulator, a great lobbying effort by essentially the largest gaming regulator in the nation and a real ally as a regulator and and I appreciate that because that didn't exist.
00:34:46:15 - 00:35:08:21
Speaker 1
I'd be remiss in my duties to the sports fans among you. So before I give David 60 seconds to wrap it all up there, of course, the great city of New York today, but we've been mainly for obvious reasons, talking about the great state of New Jersey. And there happened to be sports teams that called themselves New York something, but they actually happened to reside in New Jersey.
00:35:08:21 - 00:35:18:10
Speaker 1
So the question I've got for you, David, is whether you believe that the Giants and the Jets will ever go back to their opening days and ways?
00:35:18:23 - 00:35:42:23
Speaker 2
Well, of course, the my son in law is an avid Jets fan. You can imagine how much you have to sit and counsel him after every Sunday game. I am not a Giants or Jets fan. I'll go on a limb. I'm an Eagles fan. And I would know. MARTIN As a Patriots fan that you are in enemy territory also.
00:35:44:22 - 00:36:12:06
Speaker 2
And I believe that the Eagles beat the Patriots last year, I think, and I know they beat them in that Super Bowl time, but that was wonderful. But now MetLife Stadium, beautiful stadium, great, great set up for a lot of activities there beyond the sporting events and soon to be the World Cup. Governor Governor Murphy announced that we have the World Cup coming to us in three or four years, I believe.
00:36:12:17 - 00:36:48:04
Speaker 2
So. It's a great facility and and as much as we fought them in the past, I think everybody in the room recognizes now that the National Football League major League Baseball, the NBA, National Hockey League have all benefited extremely well from sports wagering and have embraced it to agree. That is even surprising to me today. And we just learned what Arizona is having.
00:36:48:04 - 00:37:06:06
Speaker 2
Their baseball stadium has a sportsbook in it. Now, I think I read yesterday that the Cincinnati Reds, they're having a sportsbook in their stadium, I guess, when they open up sports wagering next year. So look where we've come in four years. It's right in your backyard.
00:37:07:08 - 00:37:30:07
Speaker 1
Well, as you can imagine, I'm still traumatized as a result of those three games, two Super Bowls against the Giants. I shall be asking Amani Toomer about it later. Good on to you, Bell. Yes, pump your fast. You haven't won anything for years. And yes. And then, of course, the Eagles game now to shine even more. David 60 seconds doesn't need to be 60 seconds for you to convey your key messages to the audience.
00:37:30:07 - 00:37:41:11
Speaker 1
What is it you would like to tell this crowd today? And ultimately this episode of that Off of The Safe Bachelor will, of course, be available through all the usual channels. So it's all yours to wrap it up.
00:37:42:05 - 00:38:04:18
Speaker 2
Come the New Jersey will get you through the system and you three Peruvian jersey will have no problem finding a location anywhere in the United States. And I would say this, too, that the days of being adversaries I mean, I don't see us as adversaries anymore. You all know that as a regulator, we have total control over your license.
00:38:04:18 - 00:38:38:16
Speaker 2
We total control over your lifestyle. We have total control over your ability to be successful. That's a heavy handed approach. I don't choose to be heavy handed because I recognize that in most of the problems that we see in the industry are not to circumvent what we require, but are based on human error, negligence and many times a lack of internal controls and safeguards to protect the industry.
00:38:39:05 - 00:38:58:09
Speaker 2
And our message, it's always been when we come after you for making mistakes, is to take corrective action. I want to see systematic changes incorporated by your compliance apartment or by your internal controls department or audit department. And if you have those systems in place, risks that you're going to encounter in dealing with violations, the regulatory side are going to be de minimis.
00:38:59:01 - 00:39:28:18
Speaker 2
And if we ever have to have a battle, fine, we'll have a battle. But I believe that there's a lot of more room before you reach that start and compromise. And there are differences of opinions in our communication with one another to find the proper way to protect it your consumers, your employees, and for you to make the investment into our community we require of you to make your commitment is to follow up on your promises of having economic development in our state.
00:39:29:15 - 00:39:47:06
Speaker 1
We should look forward to those battles. Ladies and gentlemen, please give it up to the greatest and the greatest among us, director David Rebekah Martin. Let's go to discuss my state bachelor. Thank you very much.