Dreitzer brings leadership to his new role as Nevada’s Control Board chair
A former Nevada deputy attorney general who also served as CEO to a gaming equipment manufacturer is the new chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
Mike Dreitzer took the board’s top position June 23 and said he knows he has big shoes to fill with the departure of Kirk Hendrick.
Hendrick made good on an agreement he had with Gov. Joe Lombardo to serve as Control Board chairman for two years. It turned out that he was in office 2½ years, leaving the office at the completion of the 2025 Nevada legislative session.
Now, the board is under the direction of Dreitzer, who recently wrapped up his executive responsibilities at Las Vegas-based Gaming Arts.
Dreitzer also previously served as the president of the North America Division for Ainsworth Game Technology Inc., chief operating officer of BMM Americas, a global gaming test lab and consultancy, and co-founder and chief operating officer of G3, a gaming content company.
Dreitzer talked about his new role with the Review-Journal in his first media interview. The interview was edited for brevity and clarity.
QUESTION: What made you decide to accept the position of Gaming Control Board chairman?
DREITZER: I have a long history in the gaming industry. My first role in gaming was actually as a deputy attorney general where I represented the Nevada Gaming Control Board and Gaming Commission. I cut my teeth on the regulatory side of the industry. Back then, it was a tremendous education, and I learned a lot from what was then board staff and the members of the board. At that time it was under Chairman Bill Bible. This goes back to 1998, in that time frame. And I was absolutely enthralled by it, seeing the work that was done. This was at a time when gaming was exploding, and it was such a vibrant area, such an important area for the state. And I always thought that if I had the opportunity to go back and serve, that would be something that I would be very interested in doing. So when I met with the governor and he offered me the job, I accepted as a real honor of my professional life to do this and so it’s something that I had been thinking about for all these years and was fortunate enough to have the opportunity and you know didn’t have to think too long and so that it was something that I would really be interested in doing and hopefully I can do some good.
Q: What makes you qualified for the job?
A: I estimate that I have been personally licensed in over 200 jurisdictions, and that includes North America and around the world. I’m very familiar with working with regulators, the importance of good regulation. That’s part of my background, but I also have been involved with contract law, M&A (mergers and acquisitions), things of that nature, all in the context of the gaming industry.
Q: Tell me about some of your prior gaming experience.
A: I’ve been in the industry, having left the attorney general’s office in 1999. So I’ve been in the industry for over 25 years. And through all that time, I feel as though I’ve learned a lot about the industry and been a participant in the industry and had a front-row seat in just amazing growth in both Nevada and throughout the world. I think there are a couple of areas that I think can be brought to bear. Number one is leadership. I’ve had a number of roles, both at Gaming Arts and before that at Ainsworth Game Technology and other stops that have really helped me to develop my leadership style. I think leadership is a very important aspect to this role. Working with the over 400 members of the staff of the Gaming Control Board, I think they do a tremendous job in what can be a very difficult job. They do it with grace and I think that I can bring leadership to that. It’s a continuing improvement project, right? Always looking to get better. So I think that leadership is one thing that I bring in addition to that experience in understanding the gaming industry. Because I have seen it from the side of an applicant and a licensee, what we want to do is continue to be a regulatory body that’s stable, transparent and predictable so the licensees know what’s expected and that it’s evenly and fairly administered. We want to be efficient and we want to move at the speed of business while not compromising any issues of integrity or safety. This is consistent with the governor’s vision and mandate to do what we can to be more efficient to use technological tools that are available to support this efficiency. I intend to build on the work that Kirk Hendrick has done. He’s done a great job as chairman. He really dug in and looked at a whole series of regs, for example, and saw that many of them were outdated and has taken them off the books and looked to improve the overall regs and make them more efficient. So I want to continue that process. So I think my experience knowing what it is to be an applicant and a licensee really is important here. I also understand the different aspects of the industry, which I think is critical. Understanding that we have licensees of different types. We have the manufacturing side licensee. We have the interactive licensee. And, of course, the core piece to that are the brick and mortar licensees. And understanding how they do business, understanding what they need to continue to have their business flourish, in particular the brick-and-mortar licensee who in Nevada are the cornerstone of our industry. As the CEO of Gaming Arts, I got to meet with a number of different CEOs on both the manufacturing side as well as the operational side.
Q: I know you can’t talk about specific cases, but what do you think is the biggest issue facing Nevada’s gaming industry at this time?
A: Right now as I prepare for the role, I’ve been having a lot of discussions with various stakeholders, interested parties, to try and understand the industry and understand what is on peoples’ minds. I think as the chairman of the Control Board, the biggest issue is to make sure that we offer a very stable, predictable regulatory environment. I’m going to really focus on dutifully upholding the gaming laws and regulations in the state of Nevada.
Q: Do you foresee gross gaming revenue to continue to climb or do you think we’re looking at a decline? Why?
A: I don’t have a crystal ball certainly. That said, I’d never bet against the gaming industry in the state of Nevada. It’s an area that I’m studying a little bit to understand.
Q: What gaming industry figure from the past do you admire?
A: I would say Bill Bible would be a good selection because Bill was the chairman when I was a young lawyer, my first foot into the gaming industry. And I really admired the way he presided over what was a huge expansion within the gaming industry. And I think he keenly understood the balance that’s necessary between the regulators and the licensees and how to make that work and how it was a relationship that was symbiotic. When regulation is fair and stable, it allows the industry to thrive.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.