Gaming awareness group creates advisory council

Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2005 | 11 a.m.

A problem gambling awareness group has created an advisory council in order to broaden membership in the organization beyond traditional industry members such as commercial casinos and slot makers.

The National Center for Responsible Gaming, established by the American Gaming Association to raise money for research on problem gambling, created the council at the organization's biannual meeting in Las Vegas in December.

Inaugural members of the advisory council include Greg Avioli, executive vice president of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association; Thomas Brosig, faculty fellow at Tulane University's University College and co-founder of the Grand Casinos chain; Marc Falcone, a gaming stock analyst at Deutsche Bank Securities; Penelope Kyle, executive director of the Virgina Lottery and Bo Bernhard, director of gambling research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

The advisory council will begin by developing a mission statement and identify additional candidates for recommendation to the executive committee, said Judy Patterson, secretary and treasurer of the NCRG and executive director of the American Gaming Association.

Patterson said the council will include members who don't want the responsibility of a full board membership but still want to be involved in the group. Board members who want to step down and give others a turn can still be involved at the advisory council level, she said.

"You have to limit your board size so you can get things done expeditiously and two, because boards are expensive," Patterson said.

The council is expected to add members and include a diverse group of people "beyond traditional stakeholders" in the gaming industry, she said.

Falcone, who follows commercial casino companies at an investment bank, may have ideas about how to seek funding from Wall Street firms and also seeks to educate Wall Street about the problem gambling issue, she said.

Like board members, advisory council members will be involved in fundraising for the center, she said.