Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | Oct 2007 48 Games Turn To Gaming? With sports in the dock, perhaps they need to turn to other games to see how an industry can clean up. Alan Feldman, Se- nior Vice President of the MGM Mirage Ho- tel and Casino, thinks it is time sports took a leaf out of the gaming and gambling book. He commented: “We’re one of the most highly regulated industries in Amer- ica, and we live and die on our integrity,” said Feldman. “We can do nothing to put that in jeopardy. In fact, if it turns out that the [NBA] is shown to be incapable of pro- tecting the integrity of their game, it’s not a league we need to have in Las Vegas.” Vegas takes transparency and integrity extremely seriously. Understandably, as failure to do so would jeopardise its share of a booming US market; the nation has witnessed the near doubling of legal gam- bling in just 10 years—to US$83.7billion in 2005, according to the American Gaming Association. The degree to which the Ne- vada gambling industry submits to open scrutiny of its various games is indisput- ably intense and association with a pro- fessional sports franchise (long coveted by Las Vegas) without transparency could cause real problems for the city. Compare that with an American base- ball industry that has baulked against increased background checks from com- missioner Bud Selig’s office, calling the ini- tiative a “knee-jerk, misguided witch hunt” in response to the NBA betting scandal. Imagine the casino industry doing the same with croupiers. Visitors to Las Vegas know how games work, who works them and what the industry’s revenues are. For the most part, American casinos are treat- ed no different than banks by the federal government. The 1985 Bank Secrecy Act, for exam- ple, requires casinos to report every de- posit, every withdrawal, every exchange of currency, gambling tokens or chips of a value in excess of US$10,000. The Nevada Gaming Commission has more than 400 employees. The NBA, as much as any other sport, would do well to view the long-term benefits of transparency. The casino sec- tor has worked hard to ensure that cus- tomers know how their product works. The failure of sport to do the same could lead to dwindling spectators, sponsorship and TV ratings. At least we know theWorld Series of Poker is safe, well, flourishing and honest. This feature was developed in partner- ship with ICE. For more information, log on to www.ice-exhibition.com. Has basketball lost its magic forever?