As the next chairman of the gaming board, the governor of Nevada has selected Dreitzer, an industry veteran.
Mike Dreitzer was selected to serve as the next chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB), according to an announcement made by Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo on Monday (21 April).
The month of October in Nevada
In January, the current chairman, Kirk Hendrick, who was appointed to a term that would last for four years beginning in 2023, declared his decision to quit. At the time, Hendrick stated that he would remain in his position until the conclusion of the legislative session in Nevada, which will take place on June 2nd. On June 22nd, according to the governor's office, he will be leaving his position.
Following the conclusion of the event, Mike Dreitzer will assume the role of the state's most responsible and public-facing regulator. Both the Nevada Gaming Commission and the Nevada Gaming Board are the two regulatory entities that are unique to the state of Nevada. The part-time commission is responsible for overseeing the full-time board, however the chair of the board is in charge of the majority of the day-to-day administrative tasks.
Now, Dreitzer will serve out the remainder of Hendrick's tenure until January 2027, at which point he will be eligible for reappointment to serve out the remainder of the term.
"I am extremely grateful to Chairman Hendrick for his partnership and service to our state," Lombardo said in a statement. "As he prepares to step down, I am extraordinarily grateful to Chairman Hendrick." It is because of his leadership that the Nevada Gaming Control Board has been able to remove obstacles posed by bureaucracy and make significant headway in the modernisation and innovation of gaming in the state of Nevada.
Dreitzer, who most recently held the position of chief executive officer of Gaming Arts, a company that supplies slot machines, expressed his excitement about "furthering the essential mission of the board, while supporting its agents and staff to ensure the highest quality gaming regulation for our state."
There are many regulatory obstacles to come.
It's possible that Lombardo's admiration of Hendrick is the finest way to define his time spent with the NGCB. Hendrick was immediately given the responsibility of performing an internal assessment by the governor, as was the case with all state agencies, with the goal of removing regulations that were either obsolete or redundant.
Hendrick's board was successful in getting rid of sixteen state restrictions after going through a procedure that lasted for several months. Additionally, he led a number of workshops on the subject of cashless payments and was a major force for the ratification of a regulatory modification in 2024 that permitted customers to use wagering accounts for transactions that were not related to gaming at licensed locations. This was a significant step forward for the industry.
Dreitzer, a seasoned professional in the casino sector, will be in charge of Nevada gaming at a crucial juncture. Over the course of several years, the Las Vegas casino business has been embroiled in a sprawling scandal that involves illegal bookmaking and the laundering of illicit funds.
For their respective participation in the scam, Resorts World Las Vegas (RWLV) and MGM Resorts were sentenced to fines of $10.5 million and $8.5 million, respectively, by the National Gaming Control Board (NGCB) under the leadership of Hendrick. In March, the NGC gave its approval to the RWLV fine, and during its meeting on April 24th, it will take into consideration the MGM fine. During the time when Hendrick was in charge, the gaming licence of Scott Sibella, a former executive who had connections to both organisations, was simultaneously withdrawn.
In light of the fact that federal authorities were the ones who discovered and prosecuted the scam, state regulators have been given a negative reputation. There is also evidence of internal friction, as evidenced by a lawsuit for employment discrimination that was brought by a member of the staff in September of last year. The slow processes and cautious approvals had also produced a great deal of frustration among operators and suppliers, despite the fact that Hendrick had undertaken efforts to remedy this situation.
Top-level employee turnover
Along with being subjected to unfavourable scrutiny, the NGCB has been experiencing a significant degree of employee turnover for a number of years.
In January 2019, Sandra Douglass Morgan succeeded Becky Harris as chair of the board, and Dreitzer will take over as chair for the fifth time since then. During the month of November 2020, Morgan was succeeded by Brin Gibson, who subsequently resigned from his position in November 2022. Prior to Hendrick, Brittnie Watkins served as the interim chair for a short period of time. Hendrick is now passing the mantle to Dreitzer.
The second party has expertise working with both the state government and the commercial gambling industry. Dreitzer has previously held leadership positions at Ainsworth, BMM Testlabs, and other companies before joining Gaming Arts. From 1996 until 1999, he served as a deputy attorney general for the state of California. This was before all of that employment. The Nevada casino industry is coming off of four consecutive record-setting years of performance following the implementation of COVID, and Dreitzer will now aim to draw from both of those experiences in order to police the gaming industry.
It will be a peaceful transfer when the gavel is handed over to Chairman Mike Dreitzer, according to a statement that was released by Hendrick. Since our time spent working in the office of the attorney general, Mike and I have been acquainted with one another for close to thirty years today. Given Mike's extensive background in gaming law, administration, regulatory compliance, and business, Governor Lombardo has made the right decision in selecting him as the candidate for the position.
