Gaming board workshop seeks techniques to speed up technologies approval approach – The Nevada Independent

There was 1 word in Gov. Joe Lombardo’s January State of the State address that especially caught the consideration of Gaming Manage Board Chairman Kirk Hendrick. 

Logjam.

Throughout the speech, Lombardo took the uncommon step of calling out the board’s testing lab, saying that “concerns have surfaced” more than the approval approach. The governor mentioned new gaming items have been becoming introduced “with much more speed outdoors of Nevada,” which offers other casino states a competitive benefit in the opinion of casino operators.

“We have to have to function with the handle board to make certain the logjam is cleared,” Lombardo mentioned.

Speedy forward two months, and the board is set to tackle the situation raised by Lombardo by means of a  public workshop session on Tuesday in Las Vegas, a meeting that Hendrick described as an open discussion on techniques the agency can “modernize the technologies division” and effectively manage the approval approach in the board’s test lab.

The coming meeting at the Grant Sawyer Developing is viewed as an initial step in addressing casino market issues raised by the governor in January more than the time it requires for Nevada to approve new slot machines and linked gaming gear, such as cashless payment technologies.

“I decided the ideal way to tackle the difficulties is to get everybody with each other and freely exchange suggestions and options,” Hendrick mentioned.

The workshop is anticipated to be properly-attended by representatives from the gaming market suppliers along with Daron Dorsey, executive director of the Association of Gaming Gear Makers (AGEM), the industry’s trade organization.

“It’s been a lengthy time given that anyone believed about this in Nevada,” Dorsey mentioned. “Imagine the speed of technologies and what gaming has completed just in the final eight years. We want to offer some data and particulars and give an overview of what it appears like at a macro level.”

In 2015, the Nevada Gaming Commission adopted many regulation modifications 4 months right after they have been suggested by the Legislature that have been viewed as techniques to streamline the procedures. Considering the fact that that time, a number of states and tribal gaming authorities produced modifications that speeded up the introduction of new gaming technologies in markets outdoors Nevada.

Following the speech, Lombardo appointed two of the 3 handle board members, Hendrick as chairman and former Las Vegas Judge George Assad. The governor also named former Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki to the gaming commission, which tends to make the final selection on suggestions that come from the board.

Hendrick mentioned in an interview with The Nevada Independent final month that the governor’s use of the word “logjam” got his consideration. He mentioned a public workshop delivers a forum for the market to propose suggestions on how to accelerate the approach.

“By understanding everyone’s targets and objectives, I’m confident we can locate techniques to much more expeditiously regulate the market,” Hendrick mentioned in an e mail. “While the board should really under no circumstances substitute productive regulation for expedited regulation, the two targets should really co-exist.”

Hendrick anticipates that some of the ideas would need modifications in regulations.

“However, I am personally seeking for suggestions that can be implemented significantly quicker, with out the have to have for new regulations,” he mentioned.

Jim Barbee, chief of the handle board’s technologies division for much more than a decade, declined comment on the workshop, saying he would defer to Hendrick’s remarks.

Jim Barbee, chief of the Gaming Manage Board technologies division, observes a board meeting in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Feb. eight, 2023. (Jeff Scheid/The Nevada Independent)

Alterations in 2015 brought new technologies

In October 2015, the handle board and gaming commission adopted amendments to 3 gaming regulations viewed as a way to “facilitate entry of new ideas and technologies into Nevada,” according to a memo signed by then-handle board Chairman A.G. Burnett.

He also recommended suppliers coordinate with the technologies division early in the improvement approach on how the idea or technologies would match into Nevada’s regulatory structure.

Burnett, now a gaming lawyer with McDonald Carano in Reno, mentioned the modifications eight years ago “were a great 1st step” in encouraging communication among the market and the regulators.

“The globe has changed,” Burnett mentioned in an interview. “You rapidly forward to these days and there is the advent of all sorts of new gaming items, and [there are] new entrants into the marketplace that are providing diverse options for gaming providers. The providers want to use these options, but they want to do it immediately.”

Burnett mentioned the governor and the board have been taking the right actions in reviewing the approach.

“I’m hopeful the market and the handle board and commission can come with each other and enable for continued innovation,” he mentioned.