Pennsylvania Regulator Selects New Chair
The state of Pennsylvania’s chief gambling regulator, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB), has appointed Denise Smyler as its new chair, following the retirement of former chair David Barasch. Smyler had previously joined the board in 2019, after serving as part of the General Counsel of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) has revealed the appointment of Denise Smyler as its new chairperson, following the retirement of former long-running chairman David Barasch.
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Smyler Appointed by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB), which acts as the state of Pennsylvania’s principle gambling regulator, has announced that it has appointed Denise Smyler as its new chairperson. The change in leadership comes shortly after former chair David Barasch announced his retirement.
Smyler is no stranger to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB), having officially joined it in 2019 after a stint working as the General Counsel of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As part of this role, Smyler managed the execution of legal services which were provided to the state’s governor, the governor’s staff, and an additional 30 executive brand and independent agencies.
Pennsylvania’s Governor, Tom Wolf, was the one who appointed Smyler as the new chair of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB). Her appointment arrived just after the retirement of Barasch, who had previously served as the board’s leader for six years. The PGCB’s charter contains a provision which limits its members to only two three-year terms.
Alongside Smyler’s new chair position comes Nedia Ralston, who was also appointed to the board by Governor Wolf after serving as the former director of the southeast regional office for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania — reporting to the PGCB.
Prior to her time serving the Southeast Region of the Keystone State, Ralston served as a deputy finance director to Governor Tom Wolf’s gubernatorial election campaign. Governor Wolf had the following to share concerning Nedia’s recent appointment:
“Nedia has been a great asset to the commonwealth over the years and I am confident she will continue to be so in her new position.”
Tributes Paid to Former Chair Barasch
The departure of longtime Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board chairman David Barasch was also announced alongside the news of Denise Smyler taking over as new chairperson.
PGCB executive director Kevin O’Toole took the opportunity to pay tribute to the former chair, whose tenure saw Barasch steer Pennsylvania through the process of introducing iGaming into its burgeoning gambling market:
“The Gaming Control board and the public benefitted from David Barasch’s deep experience and steady hand during the past six years. At no time in the history of this agency were those qualities more important in a board chair than during the past year of unexpected and unprecedented disruptions to the gaming industry due to Covid-19.”– Kevin O’Toole, Executive Director, Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board
O’Toole emphasized in particular how Barasch’s leadership enabled the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board to fulfill both its normal regulatory duties, coupled with ensuring that new gambling offerings were properly implemented:
“During that period under Chairman Barasch’s watch, the agency not only carried out its casino oversight responsibilities but continued its important work of assuring the new forms of gambling were successfully rolled out.”
Penn Regulator Recently Issued Four Fines to Three Operators
Among the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board’s many responsibilities is the issuing of fines against gaming operators engaging in illegal behavior. Earlier this year, in late June 2021, the regulator came out and announced that it was slapping three license holders with four new fines, amounting to a total sum of $284,000.
The three license holders which were fined were Boyd Gaming, Valley Forge Convention Center Partners and, perhaps most notably, Penn National Gaming. Mountainview Thoroughbred Racing Association, which is a subsidiary of Penn National and operates Hollywood Casino, was hit with two fines totaling $120,000.
The first of these two fines amounted to $70,000 and was due to a customer who had normally self-excluded from its casino suddenly being permitted to gamble, at which point he promptly became so intoxicated that he vandalized other customers’ vehicles.
Mountainview received an additional $50,000 fine for the actions of two former employees, who “willfully funneled payments” to service providers, thereby causing them to make inaccurate disclosures to the PGCB, subsequently lowering the cost of certain license fees.
For their part, Boyd Gaming Corporation suffered a $150,000 fine for the somewhat vague charge of failing to disclose facts concerning the fitness of one of its core employees. Finally, Valley Forge Convention Center Partners allowed a 20-year-old underage player to gamble at one of its premises, resulting in a $14,000 fine.
Sportsbook Operator PointsBet Also Experiences Shift in Management
More managerial shifts in the gambling industry also arrived in June 2021 with the news of popular sportsbook operator PointsBet appointing Teresa Fiore as the new manager of its responsible service of gambling and corporate social responsibility programs.
Fiore previously worked with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, during a period in which she led the state’s GameSense responsible gaming program, which catered towards 300,000 players each year across three land-based casinos in The Bay State.
Fiore’s statement on joining the PointsBet team focused on how the need for safe and responsible gambling is more pronounced today than ever:
“I am delighted to have joined PointsBet and welcome the opportunity to continuously find ways to innovate within the responsible gambling space. With the rapid emergence of legalized sports betting, attention to safe and sustainable business practices is critical. Driving this work is a holistic view of the player, which will be used to ensure that messaging and safeguards are seamlessly integrated throughout the entire player journey.”– Teresa Fiore, Responsible Service of Gambling (RSG) & Corporate Social Responsibility Manager, PointsBet USA
