Racing and Gaming Conference at Saratoga

9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
ARCI Model Rules Meeting
Open to the public. Registration required.

10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
ARCI Board meeting (Members Only)

12:00 p.m.
RGCS Registration Opens

2:00 p.m. – 2:05 p.m.
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Patrick Brown, RGCS Owner; Co-Founder & Partner Emeritus,
Brown & Weinraub, PLLC

2:00 p.m. – 2:50 p.m.      HISA: Welcome to the New World Order

HISA is here. With the serious constitutional challenges still pending, whether HISA is here to stay remains an open question. But for now, the federal takeover of thoroughbred racing regulation means much of the day-to-day work that was done by state racing regulators is now being done by someone else. Have the state regulators downsized? Have they laid off staff, cut their budgets, or decreased their tithe on the industry? Regulators from across the country will discuss how they are adapting to the new HISA world order.

Moderator: Peter Sacopulos, Partner, Sacopulos and Sacopulos
Speakers:

• Scott Chaney, Executive Director, California Horse Racing Board
• Amy Cook, Executive Director, Texas Racing Commission
• Louis Trombetta, Executive Director, Florida Gaming Control Commission
• Robert Williams, Executive Director, New York State Gaming Commission

2:50 p.m. – 3:40 p.m.      Bettor (Better) Protection and Confidence?

As distribution and betting opportunities in professional sports have spread, so too has the communications infrastructure between each sport’s in-game officials and the (betting) public. Umpires and referees, some with off-field centralized review centers, communicate decisions that can uphold or overturn crucial plays that have a major impact on a game or match. But in North American horse racing, stewards with the power to overturn entire outcomes moments after a race and shift millions in bets and prize money often go unheard from – both immediately after decisions are made and in the hours and days thereafter. Comparatively, most developed racing jurisdictions outside North America provide far more transparent reporting from stewards. This session will pursue several important questions: Why has North American horse racing fallen behind? What is holding back North American stewards from getting on a microphone, on camera, or from providing written explanations of their decisions? What practical, legal and legislative limitations conspire to maintain this status quo? What are some useful examples to follow from other racing jurisdictions or other sports? How could policies that promote more transparent communication better engage fans and bettors and potentially build confidence and participation?

Moderator: Karl Sleight, Partner, Lippes Mathias
Speakers:

• Pat Cummings, Executive Director, National Thoroughbred Alliance
• Victor Escobar, Steward, New York Racing Association
• Kim Kelly, Chairman, International Federation of Horseracing Authorities’ Committee for the Harmonization of Racing Rules; former Chief Stipendiary Steward, Hong Kong Jockey Club
• Chris Wittstruck, Equine Attorney, Standardbred Owners’ Association of New York

3:40 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.      Networking Break

4:00 p.m. – 4:50 p.m.     Innovation and Expansion in the Unregulated Market

Given the costs associated with launching a licensed and regulated product into either the existing market duopoly of sports wagering or the limited market of iGaming, there has been a surge in the unregulated and underregulated markets of social gaming and sweepstakes, along with prodigious growth in the domestic unlicensed market. With the bar to entry for regulated gaming being what it is, the new ideas and maverick entrepreneurs have been playing in the gray and being rewarded for it with conspicuous funding from the investment community.

Moderator: Brad Fischer, Of Counsel, Orrick
Speakers:

• David Katz, Managing Director, Jeffries
• Jordan Maynard, Commissioner, Massachusetts Gaming Commission
• Charles Moore, Executive Director, Wyoming Gaming Commission
• Joel Simkins, Founder and CEO, XST Capital
• Andrew Winchell, Head of Government Affairs, Betr

5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.      Welcome Reception at the Adelphi Hotel

7:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.
Continental Breakfast

7:30 a.m.
Registration

8:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.
Opening Address by Patrick Brown, Conference Owner
Call to the Races by the Bugler
Remarks by Nancy Underwood, Executive Director of the
Backstretch Employee Service Team (BEST)

9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.    Downstate Casinos: Changing Gaming in the Northeast

The prospect of up to three destination casinos in the New York City market is clearly the top gaming prize that has yet to be claimed, but it also represents a challenge to established gaming markets throughout the eastern United States. How would the introduction of full-service casinos in the nation’s largest metropolitan area rewrite gaming in the region, and how will the established participants respond? Licensing decisions and the subsequent responses will dramatically change the face of gaming. Decision-makers in State Capitols and in corporate boardrooms from Boston to Baltimore will consider such changes, and, no doubt, make their own responses. What will the decisions and the subsequent responses be, and how will those moves affect everything from tax revenue to urban planning in multiple markets? Which stakeholders have the most to gain (or lose) from the advent of Downstate casinos? Our panel of experts and concerned stakeholders will discuss how this extraordinary expansion of gaming could play out.

Moderator: Patrick Brown, RGCS Organizer; Co-Founder & Partner Emeritus, Brown & Weinraub, PLLC
Speakers: 

• Phil Boyle, CEO, Suffolk County OTB; former State Senator and Assemblymember
• Tim Drehkoff, CEO, Rush Street Gaming
• Jeff Gural, Chairman, American Racing and Entertainment; Owner, Tioga Downs Casino Resort
• Gary Pretlow, Assemblyman and Chair, New York State Assembly Committee on Racing and Wagering
• Adam C. Rosenberg, Senior Advisor – Gaming & Leisure, Blackstone

10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Horse Racing: The Reports of My Death are Greatly Exaggerated

Are the reports of the death of horse racing greatly exaggerated? To be sure, we are witnessing racetrack contraction. But on the flip side of the coin, New York Governor Kathy Hochul recently announced a project timeline and additional updates on the construction of new thoroughbred racing facilities at Belmont Park, the Nassau County home of the Belmont Stakes – a $455 million enterprise that will generate $1 billion in construction-related economic impact and create 3,700 jobs. In Maryland there is legislation that has authorized a new Pimlico. Kentucky has added a quarter horse track with expanded Historical Horse Racing gambling, and a total renaissance in Nebraska is happening with six licensed tracks in Grand Island, Columbus, Omaha, Lincoln, Hastings, and South Sioux City – and developers calling for more. Hardly signs of a dying industry, do these projects show horse racing in transition rather than decline?

Moderator: Kim Copp, Partner, Taft Law Firm
Speakers:

• Alan Foreman, Chairman and CEO, Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association; General Counsel, Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association
• John Marshall, President and COO, Revolutionary Racing + Sandy’s Racing & Gaming
• David O’Rourke, CEO and President, New York Racing Association
• Casey Ricketts, Director of Compliance, Nebraska Racing & Gaming Commission

11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Networking Break

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Racinos: Can/Should They Survive in the New Gaming Landscape?

The word “racino” is a now-common portmanteau that combined racing and gaming to create a new vertical, designed to harness the power of casinos to boost the appeal and the revenues of a struggling racing industry. This gaming hybrid has now been in our lexicon for 21 years, and it has a distinctive record to examine in multiple states. Has this combination been effective, and has it met the goals of lawmakers, racetracks and other stakeholders? Will the proliferation of bricks and mortar casinos and the ubiquity of sports wagering and perhaps iGaming leave room in the gaming landscape for this unique combination of both worlds?

Moderator: Rajat Shah, Partner, Harris Beach LLC
Speakers:

• Matthew Cullen, former SVP iGaming and Sports, betPARX 
• Sam Gerrity, CEO, Saratoga Casino Hotel
• E. Brian Hansberry, Group President, Gaming, Delaware North
• Jeff True, SVP Sales and Client Services, 1/ST Technology

12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Luncheon

Keynote Speaker: Jayson Werth, Former MLB All-Star and
Belmont Stakes Winning Owner 

2:00 p.m. – 2:50 p.m.      The Modernization of the Lottery: A Brave New World 

Lotteries and Wall Street have something in common: Both can trace their origins to pre-revolutionary America. Before the advent of what we now know as public finance, lotteries were a primary way of aggregating capital to fund public and private endeavors. Wall Street offers a similar ancestry. Those two venerable institutions are meeting anew in the digital age. From DraftKings’ planned acquisition of Jackpocket to the pending acquisition of NeoGames by Aristocrat, lotteries and their suppliers are again at the forefront of gaming-related transactions. Will we see more major deals come through as ilottery expands across the United States? What will such mergers mean for regulators, investors and gaming operators? Our experts will chart the future of lotteries in this brave, new world.

Moderator: Bill Pascrell III, Partner, Princeton Public Affairs Group
Speakers:

• James Carey, Executive Director, New Jersey Lottery
• Helene Keeley, Director, Delaware Lottery
• Thomas Metzger, CEO, Lotto.com
• Christine Wechsler, Senior Vice President, Public Policy and Government Relations, Scientific Games

2:50 p.m. – 3:40 p.m.      Casinos, iGaming and Sports Betting 

These three gaming options are racing into an unknown future. Will sports bettors expand into digital casino players? Will digital casino players find themselves visiting casinos? Which cash registers will benefit as policymakers and players chart the future? Will iGaming cannibalize casinos, costing jobs? Or will employment grow as casinos capture new customers through new marketing verticals?

Moderator: Michelle Cohen, Partner Ifrah Law, Advisor and Counsel iDEA Growth
Speakers:

• Joe Addabbo, Senator and Chair, New York Senate Committee on Racing, Gaming and Wagering
• Justin J. Carter, SVP Regional Operations and Chair of Diversity, PENN Entertainment
• Howard Glaser, Global Head of Government Affairs and Legislative Counsel, Light & Wonder
• Michael Pollock, Senior Policy Advisor, Spectrum Gaming Group

3:40 p.m. – 4:10 p.m.      Networking Break

4:10 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.      Indian Country and Gaming

The recent promulgation of refinements to 25 CFR Part 293 greatly enhanced a tribe’s ability to offer online wagering. Do the new changes settle the controversy over the reach of tribal gaming, or do they raise a new set of questions? Our panel of tribal gaming experts will explain the new rules and their impact on tribal and commercial gaming.

Moderator: Joshua Oppenheimer, Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig
Speakers:

• Sarah A. Murray, Shareholder, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP
• Sequoyah Simermeyer, Vice President Strategic Partnerships, FanDuel
• Dan Wallach, Founder, Wallach Legal

5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
The Finish Line Happy Hour

7:30 a.m.
Registration

7:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.
Continental Breakfast

8:45 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.
Opening Address
Lynn Thomas, LCSW, Co-founder/President,
Horses for Mental Health

9:00 a.m. – 9:50 a.m.
Tote World: The Backbone of Racing 

How do pari-mutuel pools actually work, taking many different base currencies and taxation rates and commingling their bets into a single pool? How many outlets – and from how many different international jurisdictions – are betting into some pools? Will there be more collaborations like the HKJC World Pools? How has that participation changed over the years to enable bettors on potentially six continents to share in a single pool? Since the inception of modern thoroughbred horse racing in the United States, the Pari-Mutuel Totalizator System (aka “tote”) has been the backbone of regulated wagering in North America as well as other locations around the world. Top leaders in the tote industry convene to discuss the international and domestic markets, how they are adapting to current challenges, the proliferation of illegal wagering and how all things gaming will be connected in the future. Even if the practical barriers to international comingling of pools can be overcome, what state, federal and international laws might need to be adjusted to allow for a more seamless worldwide pool?

Moderator: Bennett Liebman, Government Lawyer in Residence at Albany Law School and an adjunct professor of law
Speakers:

• Andrew Archibald, President, United Tote
• Ines Hendili, International Business Development & Country Manager, PMU
• Keith Johnson, President, AmTote
• Raj Sanjanwala, COO, Global Tote

9:50 a.m. – 10:20 a.m.     Networking Break

10:20 a.m. – 11:10 a.m.
From “The Sport of Kings” to Content Filler?

Can horse racing find a seat at the sports wagering table? Horseplayers and, more importantly, industry executives view wagering on horse racing as the original and ultimate in sports betting. On the other hand, many sports bettors and sports wagering executives view betting on horse racing as something to do when “real” sports are not being offered. In other words, content filler, falling somewhere between volleyball and cricket. All of this plays out in negotiations over price and integration. Are racetracks overvaluing their product or are sportsbooks undervaluing horse racing? Will the horse racing industry ever accept a niche player role on a much larger platform or is the future a more finely tuned and more competitive horse-racing-only platform? Sportsbook operators will share their insight.

Moderator: Michele Fischer, Vice President, SIS; Founder, Darting Star LLC
Speakers:

• Joe Asher, President of Sports Betting, IGT; Chair of the Board of Trustees, The Wilson Center
• Tom Cassidy, Industry Relations Senior Manager, FanDuel
• Chris Cipolla, General Manager of Horse Racing, DraftKings
• Matt Cosgriff, Director of Retail Wagering & Customer Analysis, BetMGM

11:10 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
It’s Not Your Grandfather’s Casino: Big Business and the Convergence of Big Data and AI in the New iGaming and Sports Wagering World

While gamblers mainly play anonymously in casinos and at racetracks, there is no anonymity on the online platforms. The rapid expansion of internet gaming has brought the exponential collection of player data. The same data that can help identify people as problem gamblers (or exhibiting problem gambling tendencies) can also be used to personalize wagering experiences and bonus offerings to targeted players. Who is legally responsible for how this private data is used? Is it lawmakers, regulators, or the operators themselves? Is the new “Responsible Online Gaming Association” formed by top operators a good first step? Hear what is being done to use data and AI to identify problematic play early and intervene on the players behalf. Can payment providers use their data to detect vulnerabilities? Additionally, how can laws and regulations be aligned so that the sharing of data across operator platforms and state borders can create positive responsible gambling outcomes. Could this be the answer in accelerating the use of an effective national self-exclusion list and identifying prohibited players and problem gamblers faster and more effectively? Can the US market learn lessons from the international community to be proactive instead of reactive? Our experts convene to discuss.

Moderator: Dan Hartman, former Director, Colorado Division of Gaming; Associate Partner, GMA Consulting
Speakers:

• Jonathan Aiwazian, CEO, idPair
• Dr. Joerg Hofmann, Senior Partner, Melchers Law; former President, IMGL
• Joseph Martin, CEO, Kinectify
• Lou Rogacki, Deputy Director, New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement

12:00 p.m.
The Racing and Gaming Conference at Saratoga concludes.
Attendees are encouraged to meet at Saratoga Race Course for 1 p.m. post time

Note: Agenda subject to change