Gaming Law Training Program at UNLV With Anthony Cabot
Anthony Cabot of UNLV joins the USA Wager Show to discuss their new gaming law curriculum designed for more than just lawyers.
Ryan Knuppel
Hey, what’s going on, everybody. Welcome to the USA Wager Show. I’m your host, Ryan Knuppel here with you. Hey, if any of you paid attention to late 2021, we did a lot of these shows where we tackled tons of different new topics in the iGaming space.
But guess what? We’re coming back with a little different format in 2022. This year, we’re going to really nail dial down what we talk about and we’re going to take one topic and we’re going to dive deep.
We’re going to bring on guests that know what they’re talking about on certain topics in the gaming space. And so that’s the direction we’re going this year. I really appreciate all of you tuning in. If you have any ideas of different things you want to hear in the gaming space, please let me know.
But without further ado, today, we have a special guest that’s going to talk a little bit about gaming law and the curriculum around it. So I’m excited to have Anthony Cabot of UNLV on with me today. Anthony, thanks for joining me.
Anthony Cabot
Well, thanks for having me on Ryan.
Ryan Knuppel
I really appreciate you giving me a little bit of time. How’s everything out in Vegas today?
Anthony Cabot
Beautiful day in Vegas in the mid-sixties. So you can’t complain.
Ryan Knuppel
When isn’t it a beautiful day in Vegas? I guess maybe if it’s like 110 degrees, that’s not a beautiful day. Sometimes it gets super hot out there, but I guess most times it’s pretty, pretty pleasant there.
Anthony Cabot
It is.
Ryan Knuppel
So let’s dive right in. So you’re with you UNLV. I know recently you guys have announced a new gaming law curriculum that you guys have launched. Give me a little high level about that program, what it’s about, how it came about, and go from there.
Anthony Cabot
Sure. So I’m a professor at the law school at UNLV and for the past 20 years, we’ve had a gaming law curriculum, but it’s always been for lawyers, right? So we have 12 classes where if you’re a lawyer or even if you’re a postgraduate and you want to get back and get a higher degree in gaining new law education, you could come to UNLV. But we saw a real demand out there when we’re talking to people from non-lawyers who wanted to learn something about gaming law, and a lot of them work for casinos. They work for sportsbooks, they could be an internal audit, compliance, they could be executives. They just wanted to get an understanding of how to comply with gaming laws and what they are and how it affects their business and how they can plan for it. So with the generous grant from [Entain 00:02:42], we decided to kick off a program for non-lawyers to learn about gaming law and gaming regulation. And so that’s what this new program’s all about.
Ryan Knuppel
That’s really cool. And I’m assuming with the boom of gaming in the United States, and the need for understanding of gaming law has never been greater in the United States. And I’m assuming you are seeing that demand, like you mentioned from people like business leaders and just all sorts of people, just wanting to understand this space, because even me, myself, I own a content agency, but there’s still times that I need to understand gaming law and how it all works. So I’m assuming that you’re seeing that demand just increase crazy.
Anthony Cabot
Yeah, absolutely. Particularly in the last few years, because we’ve never seen an expansion of gaming like we have in the last few years with sports wagering, right?
Ryan Knuppel
Yeah.
Anthony Cabot
I mean, it has basically spread across the United States like a wildfire. And so now we have all these jurisdictions and now we have sports wagering. The next step is going to be iGaming. And most of them already have some type of land-based gaming. So the States basically has a full complement of legal gaming now almost everywhere in the United States. And there’s a real need, not only by the government but by industry to figure out what’s this work? How does this impact our business? How does it impact the government and how they collect taxes and all these things. We saw it and that’s what we’re trying to respond to.
Ryan Knuppel
Without diving too deep into the curriculum and all of that, I’m just assuming this has to be such a challenge because of the laws being so different from state to state. I mean, you’re not dealing with just the United States gaming laws. You’re dealing with every state having its own set of laws, which just makes it so convoluted, which also is the need for this, right? That’s why there is such a need for this is because people have to understand their local laws, but is that something you guys really have to dive into with this curriculum?
Anthony Cabot
Yeah, there’s no doubt about that. I mean, it’s difficult because as you mentioned, the regulation occurs at the state level. Fortunately, there’s a lot of similarities between states in terms of how they license people and what internal controls look like and what the enforcement mechanisms are and the operational requirements are pretty similar. So what we try to do in at least in the first class, which I teach is the intro to gaming law, it’s to give the student a full complement of what gaming regulation looks like, and why do we do it? Why is it even there? What are we trying to achieve?
Anthony Cabot
And we cover things like licensing and accounting and enforcement, and that’s just an intro class, but after the intro class, we can dive deep into different areas. So one of the areas that we’re going to have a class on shortly is anti-money laundering, right? We have another class on introduction to the regulations that govern gaming operations. We’ll have a class on the regulation of iGaming. We’ll have a class on the regulation of sports wagering. And we have another class that we currently have on native American gaming. You know, people forget that’s just as big as the traditional state government.
Ryan Knuppel
Sure.
Anthony Cabot
And what else you have one class that I think is going to be really good for operators, and that is responsible and problem gambling and the regulation thereof.
Ryan Knuppel
Interesting. Interesting. I appreciate you giving me a little insight into the classes. Let’s talk a little bit about the logistics of this curriculum. I mean, is it a 100% virtual curriculum? Is it something that people take on-site? What are the number of hours that we are putting in? The costs? Let’s talk a little bit about the logistics of how the course works.
Anthony Cabot
Sure. So the way it works, it’s like a regular college class, it’s all online and most of it is asynchronous. In other words, you can do it at your own pace, right? So 80% of it, you’ll go on and you’ll listen to lectures. You’ll get some assignments, you’ll take some tests. And about 20% of it will bring all the students together after discussion and getting into things a little bit deeper to make sure they understand everything. It is about an 80/20 split. A typical class, depending on how many credits it is, just like a regular college class, but I’d say a three-credit class, will typically involve about 24 hours of classroom instruction. So that’s kind of the way it works. And we start on March 1st, it’s when the first classes kick-off.
Ryan Knuppel
Okay.
Anthony Cabot
And I should have checked what the tuition is, but it’s about 2200 or somewhere around there for each of the classes.
Ryan Knuppel
And we just popped up the URL, but I’m assuming people can go to… It looks like law.unlv.edu, and there’s a gaming channel to get into, we’ll put the link out in the show notes, but is there a certain spot that people should be looking for this link or just head out to UNLV’s website?
Anthony Cabot
Yeah. Heading out to the UNLV law school and gaming law programming, and you’ll find it, it’s pretty evident when you go there.
Ryan Knuppel
So explain a little bit more, I mean, I know you said that this isn’t just for lawyers, this is for anybody, but what type of person in the gaming space would be interested or could really have some value taking this course? What type of people do you think are going to be a part of this?
Anthony Cabot
Well, there’s some that are pretty obvious. Every company that’s involved in legal gaming has to have a compliance section.
Ryan Knuppel
Yep.
Anthony Cabot
And in some big international companies, there’s 20 people in that group. Right. And what they’re doing is to make sure that the gaming company is in compliance with all laws and regulations. And so it’s really obvious that anybody in compliance would find this valuable. But if I’m a young executive in the gaming space, and boy, one of the things I do teach in one of my classes is I’m going to give you 101 ways to get fired for not following the regulations.
Ryan Knuppel
Here’s what can go wrong if you don’t follow.
Anthony Cabot
That’s right. And so every executive or anybody who wants to be an executive should know the regulations pretty well to avoid the trap doors that could ruin your career.
Ryan Knuppel
Yeah.
Anthony Cabot
Right.
Ryan Knuppel
It makes sense.
Anthony Cabot
But there’s also regulators out there, right. I mean, every state has a regulatory agency. Most of them don’t have a lot of experience. I’m truly hoping a lot of regulators decide to take the class so they can better regulate. Right?
Ryan Knuppel
Yeah.
Anthony Cabot
And it’s good for everybody because everybody will understand what they’re trying to accomplish what’s the best ways to accomplish it and what their common goals are.
Ryan Knuppel
Yeah.
Anthony Cabot
So those are just a few of the people that I think would be interested in the class.
Ryan Knuppel
Very cool. Well, I give you guys props. I give you and UNLV props for forward-thinking and understanding that this is a growing area. I wouldn’t call it a problem, but it is an area that people need education in and I think what you guys are offering here is a great solution, a great starting solution for a lot of people. So anybody watching this, I truly encourage you guys to check it out. We’ll have the exact link to it. I’m sure they can get ahold of Anthony as well. I don’t know if there’s a channel to get ahold of somebody. Anthony, I don’t want to say that for you, but is there any channel there to get ahold of someone?
Anthony Cabot
If you have any questions, my email address is at the UNLV school of law website. Just send me an email. I’ll be happy to answer any questions that you might have.
Ryan Knuppel
Perfect. That’s awesome. Well, hey, I’m going to put you on the spot for one last question. And this is just me being selfish now. What’s going on in Florida gaming. Can we get legal sports betting in Florida anytime soon or what?
Anthony Cabot
Well, I mean, that’s difficult.
Ryan Knuppel
It’s a loaded question.
Anthony Cabot
A difficult question. Right. And I think ultimately you’re going to get sports wagering in Florida.
Ryan Knuppel
Yeah.
Anthony Cabot
But the politics in Florida are particularly brutal. And I think until the courts come down and clarify some of the legal issues that are out there, especially with regard to exclusivity and those issues for the tribes, you’re not going to see it, but, but it’ll get resolved, but you guys are going to be a little bit late to the game.
Ryan Knuppel
Well, we had it for a week, I think, and then all the lawsuits and everything came in and I had to stop all of a sudden in my tracks, but hey, it’ll come sooner than later. I appreciate the insight. So, Anthony, I’ll let you go. I know you have valuable time on the line here, and I really appreciate you giving us just 10, 15 minutes. So I really appreciate that.
Anthony Cabot
Not a problem. Thanks for having me, Ryan.
Ryan Knuppel
All right, Anthony. And hopefully, we’ll have you back in the future for the second round of courses or whatever comes after this, but good luck with the course, if there’s anything that I can do for you, let me know.
Anthony Cabot
Thank you so much.
Ryan Knuppel
All right, guys, that was Anthony Cabot of UNLV, with the UNLV gaming law curriculum. I’ll put the link out in the show notes of this. We’ll put it up on any of the social media channels as well. I really encourage you to check it out. I think it’s going to be a great program. I may even look at it as well, just to get more understanding of what’s going on in this space, because you can never be too educated. You can never know too much and I think this law area is a space that we all need to understand and learn more. So I’m excited about what they’re doing there and I was excited to have Anthony on. So if you guys need anything from me, I’m Ryan Knuppel, this is the USA Wager Show. Take care, stay safe. We’ll talk to you soon. Bye-bye.
Learn More About Anthony Cabot & UNLV
- Learn more about the executive education program on the UNLV gaming law website.
- Connect with Anthony Cabot on LinkedIn.
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