JUE 28 DE MARZO DE 2024 - 08:37hs.
At IAGA Annual Summit

Las Vegas Sands VP: “Why does Brazil take so long to regulate gaming?”

The lawyer and professor Pedro Trengrouse became the first Brazilian in the 40 years of history of the prestigious International Association of Gaming Advisors (IAGA) to give a lecture at its Annual Summit. In California, he talked about the situation of the gaming sector in the country in the presence of some of the biggest international operators. Lawrence Jacobs, executive VP of Las Vegas Sands, asked from the front row: 'Why does Brazil take so long to regulate gaming?”

Prior to the event, Trengrouse, a lawyer specializing in sports law and VP of the Special Commission on Gaming Law of the OAB, had already been invited by G3 magazine, one of the industry's leading publications, to write an advance for his future talk at the Summit Annual of the IAGA, for the edition of this month (the article in English can be downloaded in this article).

In the publication, the professor commented that "if the gaming industry were acting in a more coordinated way to provide evidence about world’s best practices, and the way forward to properly regulate the Brazilian gaming market, positive legislation would have been approved quite some time ago."

In the 40 years of existence of the International Association of Gaming Advisors (IAGA), it was the first time they confirmed a Brazilian to speak at the Annual Summit, which took place last week at The Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay in Northern California. IAGA is the most prestigious association in the gaming industry and brings together almost the largest companies in the world. It currently has in its board executives from MGM, IGT, Wynn and others.

Trengrouse was invited to join IAGA and is now the only Brazilian member of the institution. He participated in the panel "Today, Tomorrow and Beyond: A Global Snapshot of Emerging Markets and Trends" that focused on emerging markets in the gaming industry. Moderated by John Stawyskyj (Partner with Ashurst), the debate had the presence of Maire Conneely, A & L Goodbody (Ireland), Susan O'Leary, CEO of Alderney eGambling (Emerging EMEA Markets) and Heminio (Mio) Ozaeta Jr. da Romulo lawyers (Manila) as speakers.

Representatives of the world's leading operators, mainly from Las Vegas and Macau, were present at the Brazilian representative's speech. Lawrence Jacobs, executive vice president of Las Vegas Sands, asked from the front row: "Why does Brazil take so long to regulate gaming?"

After this consultation, Trengrouse responded kindly: "If the industry presented itself in an organized way and helped institutionally, even with the succession of events such as impeachment, ‘lava jato’, general elections and labor and pension reform, Brazil might have already advanced in regulation of all the gaming modalities in the country."

“Now, as move towards a comprehensive and regulated gaming market is aligned with Brazil’s new President Bolsonaro’s liberal principles. He has always been against government intervening in individual’s freedoms. Instead, he claims the role of government is to create a conducive environment for business to flourish while protecting the rights of individuals against exploitation. Summing up: the best is yet to come!”, concluded Trengrouse.

Source: Games Magazine Brasil