The American Gaming Association (AGA) has been recognized by the American Business Awards with a Gold Stevie Award for the best communications campaign of 2018.

Throughout 2018, the association worked aggressively to educate policymakers, sports stakeholders and the public about the failures of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA), and make the case for legal, regulated sports betting in the United States.

AGA effectively quantified the size of the existing illegal sports betting market and the economic opportunities enabled by legal sports betting for sports leagues, states and sovereign tribal nations. The association’s amici brief was cited twice by the Supreme Court in its May 2018 ruling to overturn PASPA.

President and CEO Bill Miller commented: “Our work with the industry to promote the social and economic benefits of legal sports betting last year paid off, and jurisdictions and consumers are now seeing the results firsthand through increased consumer protections, new tax revenue for state and local governments and dozens of private partnerships between leagues, teams and gaming companies.”

He added: “This distinction is a great honor, and we look forward to continuing our work to enable legal, regulated sports betting to compete with the dangerous illegal market.”

The AGA has also been recognized by Association TRENDS and Sports Business Journal for its work on sports betting in 2018.