2016 IMGL in Review

Happy Holidays to all of our members and families! 2016 year has certainly been an eventful year with England’s Brexit vote and the surprise victory of Donald Trump in the United States Presidential Election. 2016 has also been an eventful year for the IMGL.

After the successful Spring Conference in San Francisco, the IMGL Conference in Dublin was one of our most successful conferences. Many thanks to the Co-Chairs of the Conference, Joe Kelly of the Goodbody firm in Dublin, and Sean McGuinness of the offices of Lewis & Rocca, headquartered in Phoenix. Not only was the content of the Conference exceptional with outstanding speakers, but the Gala Dinner at The Royal Hospital and Closing Reception at the Trinity College Library were truly memorable and enjoyed by all.

In addition to the Spring and Fall Conferences, the IMGL held its Masterclasses at a number of global gaming events including, but not limited to: ICE in London; KPMG – eGaming Summit Gibraltar; iGaming Supershow in Amsterdam; KPMG –eGaming Summit in the Isle of Man; IAGR Conference in Sydney, Australia; European Association for the Studies of Gambling in Lisbon, Portugal; and the Eastern European Gaming Summit in Sofia, Bulgaria. IMGL will once again conduct its highly-successful ICE Masterclass on February 8, 2017, in London.

The IMGL 2017 Spring Conference will be held in Miami, Florida, on May 10-12 at the Turnberry Isle Resort. Co-Chairs of the Conference are Florida lawyers, Daniel Wallach of the Becker & Poliakoff firm and Marc Dunbar of the Jones Walker firm. Also, the IMGL Fall Conference will be held in Copenhagen on September 10-12, 2017. Please mark your calendars.

On January 6-8, 2017, the IMGL will present three Masterclass panels at the National Conference of Legislators from Gaming States (NCLGS) to be held in Phoenix, Arizona. My thanks to Marc Ellinger for putting together these panels as a follow-up to the panel at the 2016 NCLGS Conference in Boston. Also, many thanks to Michael Pollack and Spectrum for their assistance with the panels.

IMGL has also reached out to Andre Wilsenach, Executive Director of the UNLV International Center for Gaming Regulation in Las Vegas, to discuss working together to develop a closer relationship with gaming regulators and creating more interesting content for regulators at our conferences.

Finally, our publications, which have now been expanded to six, continue to be a leading source of scholarly articles for the gaming industry. I am looking forward to working with our members to a make a successful 2017. Wishing all of our members and their families a Happy Holiday season and Happy New Year.

Michael E. Zatezalo
President