April 1 - May 13, 2024
Course Description
22 Hrs of MCLE Credit
This course introduces students to the law of gambling and commercial gaming. Areas of study include determining whether an act is gambling, public policy and criminal/regulatory approaches to regulated gambling, how state governments address legal gambling's social harms, and the federal government's role in gaming regulation. The course also will cover private law issues in gambling, such as contracts and the enforcement of judgments. This class's learning objective is to understand the different approaches that jurisdictions worldwide have adopted to regulate the critical areas of land-based casinos. This includes the structure of their regulatory bodies, what games they permit, who must obtain a gaming license, how they implement and set taxes, who and how they exclude persons from the casino, and how they deal with advantage players. From these, the student will explore and understand whether these various approaches were based on politics, history, religion, public policy, or otherwise. The students should understand the best regulatory practices. Topics in regulated gambling include regulatory organization, licensing, taxation, auditing, enforcement, disciplinary actions, cheating, advantage play, and exclusion rights. Each module will discuss in depth an aspect of gaming regulation.
Faculty
Anthony Cabot is the Distinguished Fellow in Gaming law at the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law. Before joining UNLV, Cabot practiced gaming law for 37 years and was a former chair of the gaming law practice and executive committee member at Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP. He is the author of numerous books and articles, most recently “Sports Wagering in America” and “The Law of Gambling and Regulated Gaming” with Keith Miller.
Course Outcomes
- Gain an understanding of the policies driving gaming laws and regulations, including what is gambling, why do governments regulate it, and how public policy underlying its approach to gambling should be the basis for all laws and regulations
- Discover how regulatory systems are organized in different jurisdictions and the pros and cons of each approach
- Explore the essentials of key gaming regulatory functions, licensing, enforcement, and accounting. Licensing will cover breadth, depth, level, criteria, and standards.
- Illustrate how regulators undertake a licensing investigation.
- Identify the essentials of gaming contracts including the enforcement of gaming debts and the patron disputes.
- Define the essentials of disciplinary measures and criminal laws governing the operations of casinos including those regulating the conduct of patrons, employees, and casino owners.