American Gaming Association Welcomes Three New Members

The American Gaming Association (AGA) is welcoming three new members as 2014 begins. The organization's board of directors will be reinforced with representatives from Wynn Resorts Ltd., Station Casinos Churchill Downs Inc.

The AGA

The AGA is the casino industry's largest and most important lobbying group in the US, including board members from America's biggest gambling and gaming bodies. The AGA has been pushing the casino industry's interests since its foundation in June 1995. Steve Wynn who helped found the organization, is expected to return to its board of directors with the addition of the three new members. Station Casinos chairman Frank Fertitta III is expected to join the board as well. Fertitta's UltimaePoker was the first website to legally go online in Nevada.

The AGA is also seeing a change in its chairman position: Bally Technologies chairman Richard Haddrill is making room for incoming Chairman Jim Murren who is also chairman for MGM Resorts. This is followed by the replacement of AGA's CEO back in June, when Frank Fahrenkopf Jr. who served as CEO since the organization's foundation in 1995 was replaced by U.S. Travel Industry official Geoff Freeman. Commenting on the three new members, Freeman said that it's "a critical step in the AGA's evolution as a representative of the entire gaming industry".

Internal Dispute

The new AGA members are entering the organization in a tense time, seeing that member and Las Vegas Sands Corp. chairman Sheldon Adelson has announced his opposition to internet gaming. Adelson is intending to spend millions of dollars to oppose both the state and federal legislation of online gambling in the United States, and it will be interesting to see how the AGA will fare with this delicate matter.