The American Gaming Association (AGA) is pinning its hopes on the new Trump administration to bring about change to the gambling landscape in the United States with the coming of the New Year and a change in government.
The president of the AGA, Geoff Freeman said recently that the association was optimistic that the gambling industry would expand under president-elect Trump. He said that the AGA was hopeful about changes and that it would work with the incoming administration to ensure that it would “continue to build on the strides of the Obama administration.” Freeman said that the “economic aspects of this speak for themselves.”
The AGA believes that Trump’s campaign promise to rebuild the United States’ infrastructure will also include the gaming industry. In this vein, the AGA sent a letter to Trump’s team, expressing their hope that the industry will be taken into account as changes are being made.
“AGA is eager to work with a Trump administration and we’ve sent a memo to the Trump transition team detailing policy issues critical to the gaming industry’s success,” noted Freeman. He added that in the letter, it was detailed how the American Gaming Association seeks to build a public policy environment that is conducive to reinvention and innovation.
In a press interview recently, Freeman said that the AGA hopes to see major changes in the area of sports betting which is practically blacklisted in the US.
“President-elect Trump has expressed his views on sports betting and appears to agree that current law has failed,” he noted. Freeman said that Trump’s comments which acknowledged the “bad illegal betting market that exists today” are generally encouraging.
The AGA is optimistic that individual states and tribes will soon have the opportunity to choose if they want to regulate sports betting in their jurisdictions, just as they have chosen whether or not to regulate other forms of gambling.
The AGA is considered the single most effective advocate for casino operators, suppliers and other interest parties in the US gaming industry – an industry which supports over 1.7 million jobs in 40 different states. One of the main objectives of the AGA is to actively build a broad coalition in support of a legal sports betting market in the US. The group continues to convene law enforcement and other bodies in support of taking a new look at the current sports betting laws in the country.
