The Special Collections Department at UNLV’s main campus library serves as a central research repository for information relating to gambling and commercial gaming as it developed in Las Vegas and became an international model for the industry. Special Collections houses materials that provide important documentation of the history of gaming, casinos, and entertainment in Las Vegas. The collections document the history and statistical basis of games and gambling; the economics and regulation of the gaming industry; psychological, social, and political effects of gambling; and the history of specific Las Vegas hotels and casinos. Significant collections have been developed in the related fields of organized crime and prostitution. Cultural aspects of gaming are represented in collections of literature and periodicals concerning Las Vegas and gambling, as well as in photographs and motion pictures. The Taxe Collection is an important resource for the study of nineteenth-century gaming.
Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming
The Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming was established by the University of Nevada, Reno, in 1989. It was the first academically oriented program of its kind. The institute promotes the understanding of gambling and the commercial gaming industries and encourages research and learning.
William Eadington is director of the institute. He has international recognition as an authority on the legalization and regulation of commercial gambling and is a prolific author concerning economic and social impacts in the commercial gaming arena. Professor Eadington organized several conferences, including the International Conferences on Gambling and Risk Taking, between 1974 and 1997. He has also edited a variety of gaming publications.
The institute serves as an important resource for Nevada’s major industry. It also responds to public information and research requests, maintains contact with domestic and International media, and directs an annual Executive Development Program, as well as gaming management education for the College of Business Administration.
Centre for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming
Located at the University of Salford, Manchester, England, the Centre for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming was established by a consortium of companies to actively research and encourage serious discussion of the gaming industry and to offer university students options for pursuing careers in gaming. The increasing attention to the national lottery in England has led to the perception that the country is deficient in academic- and government-sponsored research on gambling. The centre is a response to the need for examining policy alternatives and economic issues with respect to the gaming industry.
The objective of the centre is to encourage scholarly research and teaching in all aspects of gambling and commercial gaming. It provides a reference point for individual scholars and researchers interested in the economic, social, cultural, and mathematical studies of gaming, and emphasis is given to its policy, regulatory, and organizational aspects. The centre provides a sequence of courses at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels that fall under the area of business economics with gambling studies. The series of courses introduces students to some of the practical problems associated with gaming and gambling and provides a firm foundation in the basic principles of economic theory and quantitative economics. The degree course of economics and gambling is designed to establish a good base for a career in management, finance, or marketing.
National Indian Gaming Association
The National Indian Gaming Association (NIGA) was established in 1985 as a nonprofit organization. As of 2001, its members include 168 Indian nations and 55 nonvoting associate members representing organizations, tribes, and businesses engaged in tribal gaming enterprises from around the country. NIGA has an executive committee headed by a chairman and other officers, including delegates from tribal nations around the United States. The association’s headquarters are located in Washington, D.C. NIGA’s common commitment and purpose are to advance the lives of Indian peoples economically, politically, and socially. Its stated mission is to protect and preserve the general welfare of tribes striving for self-sufficiency through gaming enterprises in Indian country. To fulfill its mission, NIGA works with the federal government and the U.S. Congress to develop sound policies and practices and to provide technical assistance and advocacy on gaming-related issues. NIGA also seeks to maintain and protect Indian sovereign governmental authority in Indian country.
NIGA operates a Library and Resource Center that houses and provides educational research materials related to Indian gaming and other issues affecting Native Americans. To facilitate its research objectives, the center is attempting to gather data to document the historic impacts of Indian gaming on tribal communities and governments as well as on their non-Indian neighbors via the development of a National Indian Gaming Survey. The National Indian Gaming Library’s education goal is to become the most comprehensive library of printed material on Indian gaming in the country. The center also has a web site that includes basic information about Indian gaming, a searchable database, and an impressive set of links to other Native American web sites. Its “virtual library” has more than fifty research and impact studies related to Indian gaming available online. NIGA also publishes a monthly newsletter that provides updates on legislative activities, Indian gaming casinos, and related national events.
American Gaming Association
In 1993, major gaming/casino executives discussed forming a trade association to represent their industry to the nation and the powers that be in Washington. As a result of these talks, the office of the American Gaming Association (AGA) opened in Washington, D.C., in June 1995. Its primary purpose is to promote a better understanding of the gaming entertainment industry by providing the general public, elected officials, other decision makers, and the media with facts about the industry through education and advocacy.
The AGA represents the commercial casino entertainment industry by speaking to federal legislative and regulatory issues that affect its members and their employees and customers. Some of these issues include federal taxation, regulation, and travel and tourism.
The AGA has an aggressive public education program designed to convey the industry’s message to key audiences in Washington and throughout the country. It provides leadership and guidance when new issues emerge and in developing industry-wide programs in response to important issues such as problem and underage gambling. As the industry’s first national clearinghouse, the AGA provides timely and accurate gaming industry data to the media, elected officials, other decision makers, and the general public.
The association has approximately eighty members from different organizations affiliated with the gaming industry, including casinos and equipment manufacturers, suppliers and vendors, companies that provide professional and financial services, a pari-mutuel/sports book, and a variety of associations, publications, and unions. The AGA’s membership also includes some of the most recognizable names in the industry, including Harrah’s Entertainment, International Game Technology, Mandalay Resort Group, MGM Mirage, Park Place Entertainment, Gtech, and the Nevada Resort Association. The AGA is supported by dues from its member casinos and organizations.
The AGA’s web site has a section on its publications, which includes selected articles from the AGA’s membership newsletter, Inside the AGA, and third-party newsletter, AGA Ally. There is a library of AGA documents and studies, which can be received through the mail. The web site also includes gaming industry videos available for viewing online; Media Updates, which contains the AGA’s latest press releases, speeches, op-eds, letters to the editor, and archival materials from 1995 to 2000; and Member Services, which contains information about member benefits. The American Gaming Association was also instrumental in establishing the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) in 1996.
National Center for Responsible Gaming
The National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG), located in Kansas City, Missouri, is an independent nonprofit organization founded in 1996. It is the first and only funding source dedicated solely to scientific research on gambling disorders, particularly problem and underage gambling. Its mission is to assist individuals and families affected by problem gambling disorder and eliminate underage gambling by:
Supporting the finest peer-reviewed basic and applied research on gambling disorders.
Encouraging the application of new research findings to improve prevention, diagnostic, intervention and treatment strategies.
Enhancing public awareness of problem and underage gambling.
The NCRG is a division of the Gaming Entertainment Research and Education Foundation and is governed by a board of directors. The membership of the board includes representatives of the gaming industry and leaders from the civic, charitable, educational, community, and public service sectors.
The center is supported financially by the commercial casino industry and has received pledges of over $7 million from gaming and gaming-related organizations. The NCRG administers its research grant program using peer review panels. Panel members, who are recognized as experts in their areas, follow review procedures and criteria guided by rigorous standards established by the National Institutes of Health to evaluate the scientific merit of proposals submitted to the NCRG (a list of members who have served on the panel from 1997 to 2000 is available on the NCRG’s web site). The center has granted $2.5 million to renowned research and medical centers, such as Harvard Medical School, in support of research in the fields of neuroscience, behavioral and social science, and epidemiology. Ideally, these research projects will help to expand our knowledge about gaming disorders and lead to effective prevention and treatment programs.
The National Coalition against Legalized Gambling
The National Coalition against Legalized Gambling (NCALG) is the creation of its executive director, Tom Grey. Grey, a Vietnam infantry veteran and a United Methodist minister, became concerned about gambling in 1991. Grey was a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary, and he had led four congregations. He was pastoring a Methodist church in his hometown, Galena, Illinois. Illinois has authorized riverboat casinos, and an operator expressed interest in running a boat out of Galena. Grey supported a local referendum vote against the proposal. Over 80 percent of the local voters said no to the idea of a local casino. Nonetheless the county commissioners supported the casino, and in 1992, the Illinois Gaming Board ignored local opinion and awarded a license for the Galena site. Grey was incensed, and very soon he found that a lot of people around the country were faced with the same problem – having casinos placed near their communities in face of local opposition. Grey decided to organize these opposition forces.
In May 1994, Grey brought together a group of opponents as the NCALG, and he structured a network of people in almost every state as well as in Canada. He began holding annual conferences and issuing a newsletter. The NCALG established the National Coalition against Gambling Expansion to serve as its political activity arm. The NCALG makes education its top priority. It provides research, information, and technical support to those battling the expansion of gambling. Staff leaders – especially Grey – travel the country helping local groups organize in grassroots efforts to oppose gambling. They help build bridges to other local groups that do not want legalized gambling. The e-mail net of the NCALG serves as a clearing house for antigambling information.
Tom Grey and his groups have challenged gambling proponents wherever they have appeared. The campaigns are ongoing, and Grey finds himself traveling about the country, usually driving by himself, popping into communities, dining at church suppers, and being a house guest of local clergy. He then energizes the local population by providing facts and speaking with the local media and key community leaders. He offers a zeal that is usually associated with the pulpit. One political consultant labeled the sixty-year-old Grey (born in 1941) as the gambling industry’s nemesis: “Our most dangerous man in America” (U.S. News and World Report, 15 January 1996, 52). Grey and his coalitions have seen major victories as well as defeats. He was instrumental in getting Congress to establish the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, which began work in 1997. The efforts of the groups defeated casino gambling in Ohio, Arkansas, and Florida but fell short in Michigan. They were key in the fights to defeat a lottery in Alabama and to close down slot machine operations in South Carolina.