There are many dynamic duos. Bert and Ernie. Batman and Robin. Sonny and Cher. For US online gambling, you could arguably put Entain SVP American Regulatory Affairs & Responsible Gambling Martin Lycka and Princeton Public Affairs Group’s Bill Pascrell III on the list.
The two joined forces at SBC Summit Barcelona for a live version of The Safe Bet Show. The two longtime colleagues reminisced on their years of work to bring gambling expansion to the US, most notably in New Jersey. They also took a deep dive into Pascrell’s family and its long history in the US political space.
Pascrell’s long history in gaming means he was a major part of the initial passage of online casino legislation in New Jersey. Accordingly, he knew to encourage his clients to engage with lawmakers in front of the ten-year sunset of the provision. As he explained, operators needed to actively push for ten more years but they believed renewal was a slam dunk.
Instead, the proposed renewal was initially two years before negotiations took it up to five years.
“I think the legislature’s looking at raising the tax, which we have to push back hard at. Because New Jersey wasfirst state in the nation to regulate online, the lowest tax rate in the country–we need to keep it that way, but it’s not gonna happen organically by itself,” Pascrel noted.
“What Martin has done, particularly across the globe, but even more granularly in North America and now in Latam, is really try to explain to operators we have to get ahead of the curve, we have to make sure to create a more sustainable, profitable industry, we’re concerned about our consumers and player protection.”
“What they don’t fully appreciate yet, not everybody axiomatically across the board, what they don’t appreciate is your job may not be here next year if the regulators come down, ban advertising, limit the amount accounts can be funded, etc. So we have to protect our consumers because they’re the mother’s milk of creating a more vibrant, sustainable industry,” he added.
The duo dove into Rep. Paul Tonko’s federal bill proposing a full ban of advertising sports across TV, internet, and the radio. Like the New Jersey iGaming renewal bill, the two cautioned this is an effort that the industry should not be sleeping on.
“You have to take that bill seriously because there’s many purposes of putting a bill out to make a statement. It’s not always to pass a bill,” Pascrell explained.
Beyond just the US, Pascrell and Lycka noted that the need to get ahead of potential issues and keep the lines of communication open between operators and lawmakers and regulators is an international one.
“I’ve said it before, most of you haven’t seen me before, we are one newspaper headline away. From some politician or regulator, son, daughter, mother, father, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, or next-door neighbor, from going down the rabbit hole on problem gambling and this whole industry will become obnoxiously more difficult to operate in,” Pascrell warned.
Watch the full episode of The Safe Bet Show here.
