Boyd Students Honored for Gaming Essays

Two William S. Boyd School of Law students recently received honorable mentions in the International Association of Gaming Advisors Shannon Bybee Scholarship Program.

Rick Benito

Third-year law students Rick Benito and Michael Lafia both were honored for their essays on gaming. Benito’s essay “A Shot in the Arm:  The New Age of Betting on Non-sports Events in Nevada” covered the recent changes in the Nevada Gaming Commission’s regulations, which allow for Nevada sportsbooks to take bets on non-sporting events. Nevada is the only state to allow this type of betting.

“With the new regulations, revised this past January, things like betting on the World Series of Poker or betting on what color tie Obama will wear at the next State of the Union address are now options for betting, after approval by the Gaming Control Board,” Benito said. “These changes came about, some say, because of the desire to bring in more betting revenue as well as to better compete with overseas sportsbooks which have been allowing this type of betting for years now.”

Michael Lafia

Lafia’s paper, “How Something ‘incidental’ is of Great Importance to Nevada’s Primary Industry,” is about the controversy about what the requirements should be in order to get a gaming license for non-casino locations such as bars, taverns, lounges, and convenience stores in Nevada. The paper analyzed how the Nevada Gaming Commission and Nevada Gaming Control Board have applied the “incidental” standard in the licensing process by studying past transcripts.

“The test for getting a license at one of these establishments required that gaming be ‘incidental’ to the primary business of the establishment,” Lafia said. “There is no definition for what exactly ‘incidental’ to the primary business means, so my paper basically looked to what that term entailed.”

Additionally, the paper examined how other factors have complicated the application of the standard, such as local zoning restrictions and the Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act.