New Jersey playing regulator who suggested nation on integrity and oversight retires

 New Jersey playing regulator who suggested nation on integrity and oversight retires


ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — David Rebuck, who oversaw New Jersey’s growth of nation-leading web playing and sports activities betting industries and suggested greater than two dozen states on establishing and regulating their very own playing operations, retired Friday after 13 years as certainly one of America’s most influential playing regulators.

Rebuck, 71, stepped down as director of the state Division of Gaming Enforcement after main New Jersey although a turbulent interval when some Atlantic Metropolis casinos closed and the state turned a pacesetter in rising types of playing together with sports activities betting, which took place after the state gained a U.S. Supreme Court docket case to allow it.

“This trade isn’t uninteresting,” he mentioned. “There are at all times going to be challenges and alternatives. We needed to be the head of regulating the trade in order that the casinos would have a greater likelihood of success whereas defending clients.”

Rebuck was appointed by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in 2011 at a time when Atlantic Metropolis’s casinos have been reeling from aggressive financial pressures from casinos in neighboring states.

“The marching orders have been clear: to implement the legislation that had simply handed,” he mentioned. “There was a sense on the a part of the casinos that they have been overly regulated by guidelines that hadn’t been up to date for the reason that Nineteen Seventies.”

A streamlined governmental oversight system helped scale back among the casinos’ overhead bills. However it might not show sufficient to stop 5 of the 12 casinos from shutting down in lower than two years; two of them have since reopened.

“You thought you have been doing every part you would do to assist them survive on this market, and it did not work,” he mentioned. “It was a troublesome time.”

A yr later, in 2013, Rebuck presided over certainly one of New Jersey’s best triumphs: the beginning of web playing. New Jersey led the nation in on-line playing for 10 years till Michigan surpassed it by a small fraction final yr by way of the sum of money gained from gamblers.

When Democrat Phil Murphy succeeded Republican Christie as governor in 2018, he stored Rebuck on as chief playing regulator.

That yr, Rebuck led the creation of guidelines and laws for New Jersey’s sports activities betting trade after the state prevailed in its longshot authorized battle to overturn a federal ban on it in all however 4 states. That U.S. Supreme Court docket ruling led the best way for all 50 states to supply authorized sports activities betting in the event that they so selected; 38 states plus Washington, D.C, presently do.

Jane Bokunewicz, director of the Lloyd Levenson Institute at Stockton College, which research the Atlantic Metropolis playing market, mentioned Rebuck helped launch “new gaming merchandise which are altering the trade and protecting New Jersey on the high of the nationwide market.”

Rebuck has additionally been extremely hunted for his recommendation and technical experience by different states contemplating adopting new playing operations or modernizing current ones. He mentioned he has suggested and labored with greater than two dozen states on this regard.

“We would give them our precise e book, and say, ‘That is what we do, that is how we do it and that is how you are able to do it,’” he mentioned. “It is a copycat trade; as soon as folks see one thing that works, they wish to do it, too.”

Mark Giannantonio, president of Atlantic Metropolis’s Resorts on line casino and of the On line casino Affiliation of New Jersey, known as Rebuck “a considerate and progressive gaming regulator who superior so many points of gaming in New Jersey.”

With web playing, “Dave led the group at DGE and constructed from the bottom up the insurance policies and laws that created an entire new progressive enterprise for New Jersey in a secure and safe method,” Giannantonio mentioned. “These laws have been duplicated throughout the nation.”

Mary Jo Flaherty, deputy director of the gaming enforcement division, will function interim director for an unspecified interval.

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Observe Wayne Parry on X at https://twitter.com/WayneParryAC





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