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ISSUE STATEMENT
Dan R. Reaser
FENNEMORE CRAIG
GAMING LAW
RENO
Slot machine wagering and revenue totals have been
steadily dwindling since their peaks in the mid-’00s,
and the demographics of their typical players are
aging. The Nevada gaming industry has noticed, and
is now imagining a future in which casino floors have
options like trivia, touch-screen tablet games, third-person combat games and more.
This future is now a reality, and the aforementioned games may already appear on casino floors in
Nevada, thanks in part to skill-based gaming legislation, regulations and technical standards authored by
Dan Reaser, director at Fennemore Craig in Reno.
“It’s logical to me,” says Reaser. “I’m 62 and have
two daughters in their late 20s, early 30s. They play
video games and they find the typical three-cherries
thing not worth putting $10 into. But if they could
play Bejeweled, that would interest them. I have a
son-in-law who loves Words With Friends, who might
like to put his money where his mouth is.”
Reaser has been a gaming attorney for more than
30 years. He served as general counsel to the Nevada
Gaming Commission and Gaming Control Board in
the ’80s and chief deputy of the gaming division for
the attorney general’s office; but it was the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers who
tapped him to create this legislation.
“For probably 10 to 15 years, some of the game
designers—the engineers trying to figure out the
next best slot machine—have been trying to figure
out how to jazz up the experience of a slot machine
by marrying it with the video game phenomena,” he
says. “A couple of years ago, AGEM came to me and
said, ‘Do you think you could do skill [gaming]?’ and
I said, ‘Sure, you just have a lot of law to change and
we’re going to have to change some perceptions.’”
The Next Evolution in Gaming Law
Dan Reaser’s legislation ushers in the era of skill-based gaming BY TREVOR KUPFER
In 2013, the legislature appointed a commission to
study the effects of technology on gaming devices. It
recommended the introduction of a bill that could de-
part from the 1989 interpretation that skill games apply
to table-based games like blackjack and craps, not ma-
chines. After much input and several hearings, Reaser
drafted a bill for the legislature that was introduced in
late 2014 and became law the following summer. He
then helped define the rules and regulations, which the
gaming commission adopted in September, as well as
the technical standards that went through in February.
The new style of gaming brings with it new chal-
lenges in law. But that’s just part of the game.
“It’s a little like when I started out as a gaming
lawyer, business organizations had only been able to
have a gaming license for five years—it was a brand
new concept. Before that, a human being had to hold
the license. And then, decades from there, public
companies and shareholders could own a gaming
company or stock in the company. Then 10 years
ago, it allowed private equity, so we don’t even know
who’s investing. As each of those financing changes
occurred, a whole new group of lawyers didn’t crop
up, we just had to learn the change in the law.”
As for the perception that casinos will soon look
like video arcades, Reaser is quick to respond. “These
games are not replacing what’s already out there be-
cause there’s a very substantial and loyal demographic
for that. They are to expand the offerings that a casino
can make and, at one level, to present a product that a
younger demographic would find interesting.
“I don’t see it as doom and gloom, I see it as the
next type of casino entertainment to rejuvenate the
gaming floors,” Reaser says. “It’s the next evolution,
and the next logical step.”
Slot Machines v. Video Games: By the Numbers
National Slot Machine Wagering in 2006: $138 billion of American Homes With a Video Game Console in 2006: 33%
National Slot Machine Wagering in 2014: $105.4 billion of American Homes With a Video Game Console in 2014: 51%
National Slot Machine Revenue in 2007: $8.4 billion U.S. Computer & Video Game Sales in 2006: $7.3 billion
National Slot Machine Revenue in 2014: $6.74 billion U.S. Computer & Video Game Sales in 2014: $15.4 billion
Nevada Slot Machine Revenue in 2007: $8.45 million Average Video Game Player Age in 2006: 33
Nevada Slot Machine Revenue in 2015: $7 million Average Video Game Player Age in 2014: 35
