International Gaming Summit Conference Program Committee
The Conference Program Committee
plans and coordinates the IAGA International Gaming Conference program, recruits as speakers key gaming industry leaders and regulators from around the world, and ensures that each year's topics address cutting edge and current issues involving all facets of the gaming industry and the regulation of gaming.


             
          AMY ELDER, Chair, has extensive experience in all aspects of gaming law. Ms. Elder represents and advises privately held and publicly-held casino operators, gaming-related manufacturers, casino management companies, investors, developers, commercial lenders and private equity firms in a wide range of gaming matters, including licensure, regulatory compliance, administrative hearings, financing and project development. Her clients include the largest gaming operators and gaming equipment manufacturers in the casino industry. Ms. Elder is a past board member of the International Association of Gaming Advisors and is listed in Best Lawyers in America® in Gaming and Leisure and Hospitality Law and ranked in Chambers USA: America's Leading Business Lawyers as a leading lawyer nationwide in the area of Gaming & Licensing law.



          Co-Chair BILL GANTZ, a Partner with Duane Morris, is a versatile lead trial lawyer with nationwide experience representing gaming, technology, and manufacturing in intellectual property and commercial litigation, including patent infringement, trade secret, consumer class action and appeals. Bill has been advising the igaming industry since 2002 on regulatory, licensing and commercial matters in the United States. He is a well-known speaker and authority on gaming law in the US. He regularly provides counsel on intellectual property and regulatory compliance matters to start-ups and digital entertainment businesses offering igaming, social gaming, pay-to-play or "freemium" games, fantasy sports, esports, sports betting, skill games, sweepstakes, retail product promotions and lottery tickets. 




          BAHAR ALAEDDINI is a Partner at Harris Hagan in the UK and specialises in all aspects of online and land-based gambling law. She advises many of the world’s largest land-based and online gambling businesses (B2C and B2B operators) as well as many start-ups, investors and leading international law firms. Bahar has extensive gambling legal, regulatory and licensing experience advising on legal classification, licence applications, investor due diligence, change of corporate control applications, complex group restructuring and specialist regulatory matters relating to mergers and acquisitions. She also advises on regulatory compliance assessments and investigations and licence reviews.


         

KATHERINE BAKER is a partner in the Boston office of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP.  She developed the gaming practice at the firm and represents businesses and individuals in complex civil litigation matters at the trial and appellate levels. A primary focus of her practice is assisting casino gaming, sports betting, and fantasy sports operators, vendors, and entrepreneurs to navigate the state and federal commercial and tribal gaming landscape, including leveraging FinTech solutions. In addition, Katherine is one of a small group of attorneys with expertise in all aspects of the Massachusetts initiative petition process, including gaming initiatives. 



         

ALEX COSTELLO serves as Vice President for government relations for the American Gaming Association (AGA) and advocates for the gaming industry’s priorities on Capitol Hill and with the Administration. Alex also runs the member based Anti-Money Laundering working group, Payments Modernization working group and Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force. Prior to joining the AGA, Alex was the first-ever director of legislative affairs at the Center for Law and Social Policy, an antipoverty non-profit. While at the U.S. Department of State, Alex was chief of staff of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL). Alex also served as the director of senate affairs in the Bureau of Legislative Affairs. 

alt          

SEAN MCGUINNESS is a Partner with Butler Snow LLP and on the firm’s Gaming Industry Team. His practice focuses  on commercial gaming matters in Nevada, Colorado, Iowa and Mississippi and on sports betting matters. Prior to joining the firm in 2018, Sean practiced gaming law for 15 years at a law firm in Reno, Las Vegas and Denver. Sean was Vice President and General Counsel for The Resort at Summerlin and had a private gaming law practice in Mississippi (1994-1997) and served as Compliance Director for the Mississippi Gaming Commission (1992-1993). He started his career as a law clerk with the Iowa Racing & Gaming Commission.

         

ERICA OKERBERG, Vice Chair of Greenberg Traurig's Global Gaming Practice, focuses her practice on gaming law and promotional law. She has deep experience handling complex gaming licensing, operational, and regulatory matters for U.S. and International clients. She represents land-based and online casino companies, sports wagering operators, manufacturers and distributors, as well as other companies providing services to the gaming industry. Erica also has wide-ranging experience with analyzing and structuring social games, skill-based contests, and sweepstakes. She regularly counsels clients on promotional matters, including advertising claims, charitable promotions, and cause-related marketing.

         

DAN WAUGH is a Partner at the research and advisory firm, Regulus Partners where he leads on regulatory risk analysis and customer wellbeing strategies. Prior to joining Regulus in 2014, Dan worked in the leisure, gaming and hospitality industry for 14 years. His roles included Group Strategy Director at The Rank Group plc and Head of Investor Relations at Whitbread PLC. Dan was the founding Chair (2015 to 2017) of the youth education charity, YGAM. He has written extensively on matters of gambling regulation and provided evidence to parliamentary committees on a number of occasions.

 


Summit Sportsbetting Sub-committee

         

SANTIAGO ASENSI, Chair, is the Managing Partner of Asensi Abogados, an expertise law firm in the Gaming and Gambling sector with offices in Spain (Madrid and Majorca) and Colombia (Bogota). Asensi provides legal advice to a large number of gambling operators (online and terrestrial), software providers, slot suppliers with interests located in Spain, Europe and Latin America as well as to gaming jurisdictions. Santiago is included in the Gaming & Gambling section of the independent and leading publication Chambers Global ("Band 1"), being mentioned as "a pioneer" in his field, "an obvious go-to guy for gaming advice" and "has built a strong reputation over a number of years". 

         

ADAM BERGER is a partner in the Duane Morris Corporate Practice Group, a member of the firm's governing Partners Board and a member of the Gaming Industry Group. He represents public and private companies involved in all facets of the gaming industry in a broad variety of corporate and regulatory matters and has extensive experience representing casinos, casino holding companies and gaming equipment manufacturers, as well as financial institutions including banks, private equity funds and hedge funds in connection with mergers and acquisitions, debt transactions, licensing, compliance matters and regulatory investigations. Mr. Berger has advised traditional gaming companies, media companies, professional sports teams and financial institutions on matters related to the rapidly expanding sports wagering industry in the United States. 

         

KIERON FRAZIER, an associate with Greenberg Traurig, focuses his practice on a variety of corporate and finance matters, including all aspects of team-level transactional work, financing transactions, media transactional work, public and private mergers and acquisitions, as well as other matters relating to general corporate and finance. Kieron works with the gaming practice group on a variety of gaming-related matters, particularly as it relates to sports wagering, fantasy sports, and iGaming. Kieron has broad professional sports experience, having served as associate counsel with Minnesota Vikings Football, LLC for three years with responsibilities that included NFL league relations, general team matters, and management of specific areas of the business and legal affairs department.

         

JONATHAN NABAVI serves as Vice President of Public Policy and Government Affairs for the National Football League (NFL) and is responsible for advising on all aspects of its public policy and legislative agenda and represents the League on a wide range of issues before Congress, the Administration, and other federal and local government agencies. Prior to joining the NFL, he served in a variety of senior congressional staff and political roles, most recently as Majority Counsel for the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, providing strategic counsel to the Chairman. He previously served as Counsel for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and as a senior adviser for multiple Members of the House of Representatives. A graduate of Pennsylvania State University, Jonathan was an academic All-Big Ten member of the Penn State football team while earning a degree from the University’s Schreyer Honors College.



         

JENNIFER ROBERTS is General Counsel of WynnBET, a mobile and Internet sports betting and casino provider. She briefly served in roles as General Counsel and Vice President of Compliance for GameCo, an arcade-style gambling and esports betting company, and as the Director of Sports Gaming Regulation for the Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation. She was the Associate Director and interim Executive Director of the International Center for Gaming Regulation at University of Nevada Las Vegas, where she created a curriculum for educating regulators on sports betting and casino regulatory issues; established the U.S. Sports Betting Forum; and advised governments, including Japan, on the development of gaming regulatory structures and systems.

         

KEITH WHYTE became the Executive Director of the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) in October 1998.  NCPG serves as the national advocate to mitigate gambling-related harm. NCPG was founded in 1972 and is the oldest and most objective organization on gambling issues. Previously, Mr. Whyte served as Director of Research for the American Gaming Association where he was responsible for research and public policy issues, including problem gambling.  His prior experience includes the American Bar Association’s Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities where he dealt with policy issues relating to civil rights, human rights, healthcare, and immigration law.  He began his career working on healthcare policy in the office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Keith graduated from Hampden-Sydney College with a Bachelor of Arts in History and a Certificate in International Relations.  He also studied at Leiden University, the Netherlands.