September President’s Message

IMGL is looking forward to our reception during G2E to be held in Las Vegas on 15 October taking place at La Cave – Wynn Las Vegas.

Also, as part of our arrangement with Clarion Events, IMGL will be hosting an IMGL Masterclass, to take place on 14 October at the Wynn.  Details are available on our website.

The various IMGL Regulator of the Year regional Committees have selected the IMGL Regulators of the Year.  A number of highly qualified nominees have been proposed, and I am pleased to announce that the following awards have been made:

Regulator of the Year (Asia/Pacific)

Mr. Paulo Martins Chan

Director, Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau of Macao SAR

Regulator of the Year Award – Indian Country

Mr Jonodev Chaudhuri

Partner, Quarles and Brady LLP

Lifetime Achievement Award – North America

Mr. Larry B. Eliason

Executive Secretary, South Dakota Commission on Gaming

President’s Award – 2019

Justin Franssen

Partner, Kalff Katz & Franssen

Please join me in congratulating each of the recipients.  Each is extremely well deserved and IMGL is pleased to recognize the leadership which each of these regulators has given.  These awards will be bestowed at various IMGL events, with the American recipients being awarded plaques to recognize their awards at our VIP reception in Las Vegas on 15 October.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank Brien Van Dyke, for her tremendous efforts given to IMGL in her capacity as IMGL Interim Executive Director.

Brien Van Dyke has supported and co-ordinated all IMGL matters in 2019 and I am pleased to announce that Brien will serve as our Director going forward. Brien can be contacted on brien@imgl.org and will be at our Las Vegas events in October.

Please enter in your diaries the next IMGL conference, being our IMGL 2020 Spring Conference to be held in Athens on 1-3 April 2020.

I expect to be in a position to announce shortly the location and details of the IMGL 2020 Autumn Conference:  This will be held, jointly, with the  International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR) in Boston, in September 2020.

Plans for these events are underway, with Mike Zatezalo and his committee well advanced in their planning for the IMGL 2020 Spring Conference in Athens.  We look forward to seeing you there.

I should also mention that IMGL had a very successful conference in Munich in September, with a programme organised by Wulf Hambach, Joerg Hofmann, Frieder Backu and Marc Ellinger.  The conference which was well attended by a considerable number of IMGL members and others, including stakeholders from both Americas, Europe and other geographical regions, discussing key topics of interest to the gambling sector.  We are looking forward to having a similarly successful conference in April next year in Athens.

I am pleased to announce the results of the elections for the IMGL Executive Committee for 2020, that took place at the IMGL General Meeting in Munich.  The 2020 IMGL Executive Committee will be:

President – Marc H. Ellinger
(Ellinger and Associates, LLC, Jefferson City, Missouri)

Executive Vice President – Quirino Mancini
(Tonucci & Partners, Italy)

First Vice President – Marie Jones
(Fox Rothschild LLP, New Jersey)

Second Vice President – D. Michael McBride III
(Crowe & Dunlevy, Oklahoma)

Secretary – Marc Dunbar
(Dean Mead, Florida)

Treasurer – Peter Kulick
(Dickinson Wright, Michigan)

Assistant Secretary – Cosmina Simion
(Simion & Baciu, Romania)

Assistant Treasurer – Alfredo Lazcano Samane
(Lazcano Samane, S.C., Mexico City)

Vice President, Affiliate Members – Tina Kilmer
(GLI, Las Vegas)

Vice President, Educator Members – Kathryn Rand
(Dean & Co-Director, University of North Dakota School of Law)

I wish to express my congratulations to each of these members on their election.

Our 2020 ICE Reception will be held in London on Tuesday, 4 February 2020, again in conjunction with Ince.  This was one of the social highlights of the 2019 ICE conference and I am sure that our 2020 ICE Reception will be no different.

We look forward to seeing you soon at one of our IMGL events, including an IMGL Masterclass near you.