Adler’s career at Aruzé Gaming as dynamic as company’s rise
Gaining resilience during firm’s bankruptcy a key skill
Written By Pat McDonnell
Erica Adler (J.D. '20, LL.M. '21) is convinced her career has moved faster than she could have imagined since she received her LL.M. degree in 2021.
Just months before that momentous accomplishment, Adler was testifying before the Nevada Legislature for the William S. Boyd School of Law at UNLV Professor Becky Harris’ Gaming Policy Seminar. She learned how to develop solutions to key gaming issues from Harris, who had served from 2018-19 as the first female chair of the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
In August 2021, the Japan-founded Aruzé Gaming firm offered Adler a position in Las Vegas as associate general counsel. Aruzé Gaming America’s branch filed bankruptcy two years later, but Adler did not flounder. She thrived.
“This was completely new for a lot of people,” says Adler of the bankruptcy process. “I figured if I could do that, I could do anything. Going through the bankruptcy as a compliance officer would have been impossible without the LL.M.”
Aruzé filed bankruptcy voluntarily after a $27 million garnishment judgement against Aruzé Gaming America’s sole shareholder, Kazuo Okada. The judgement followed a legal fees dispute between a law form and Okada
That difficult pathway made her resilient, and Adler, who speaks Japanese, watched the company's assets sold and rebrand as Aruzé Gaming Global after its acquisition by Empire Technological Group Ltd. in August 2023. The new company, now with slot machines as its “bread and butter,” according to Adler, is growing with gaming opportunities in not just its Las Vegas headquarters, but Asia and Europe as well.
Looking back, Adler remembered her student externship at the Gaming Control Board during the fall of 2020 and the COVID pandemic as pivotal to her success.
“It helped with the LL.M.,” she said. “I got to see how regulators think and learn about their thought process. I’ve had to use that experience many times.”
Adler, who earned her Juris Doctorate at Boyd in 2020, said one of her goals is to do international work, but stay in the general counsel role engaged in both the legal and business sides of a firm.
With Aruzé having placed products in nearly 30 countries, she believes her focus might be gaming manufacturing.
“That has always been there,” Adler says of her mindset.