Gaming
Overview
The Gaming Group at Eckert Seamans comprises attorneys and other professionals who have years of experience working with the legislative, administrative, and business arenas of the gaming industry. With offices stretching from Richmond to Boston and Princeton to Pittsburgh, with various locations in between, Eckert Seamans is perfectly positioned to serve participants in the East Coast gaming market. With one of the nation’s strongest hospitality law practices, Eckert Seamans offers clients valuable synergies as the industry increasingly looks to a gaming-resort-entertainment destination model.
In Pennsylvania, our lawyers were instrumental in drafting and achieving passage of Pennsylvania’s Gaming Act in 2004, were integrally involved in the state’s expansion into table games in 2010, and are at the forefront of efforts to enact legislation on Internet gaming and other gaming industry initiatives. Attorneys at Eckert Seamans serve as counsel to three of 13 licensed casinos in Pennsylvania. The firm also regularly and successfully represents gaming manufacturers, employees, and vendors before the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.
In addition, we represent Pennsylvania municipal governments in gaming matters pertaining to the distribution of local share monies and other gaming-related issues. U.S. News and World Reports recently named Eckert Seamans the only Tier 1 gaming law practice in Harrisburg.
Our gaming practice is comprehensive and serves all the needs of casinos, manufacturers, Native American Indian tribes, racetracks, account wagering companies, private equity funds, lenders, individual casino principals and employees, and casino vendors. In addition to regulatory and legislative affairs, Eckert Seamans attorneys represent casinos and racetracks in financial and real estate transactions, as well as matters relating to zoning and land development, labor and employment, hospitality and hotel development and management, utilities, environmental concerns, state and federal tax disputes, and liquor licensure and enforcement. Our attorneys also represent our gaming clients in trial and appellate litigation in state and federal courts.
We take pride in both assuring our gaming clients are in compliance with applicable laws and developing strategies, whether they be regulatory, lobbying, transactional, or judicial, to establish an environment in which our clients can achieve maximum success.
Representative Matters
- Represented multiple applicants in casino licensure contests in Maryland, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania.
- Challenged and defended casino licensure awards through the highest appellate courts.
- Drafted and advanced legislation authorizing gaming and addressing Internet gaming, taxation, smoking, liquor, and numerous other gaming and racing industry issues.
- Navigated the regulatory review process to successfully influence the creation and evolution of gaming regulation in new gaming jurisdictions.
- Represent casinos, racetracks, manufacturers, vendors, and other industry participants in regulatory affairs before gaming control and other state and federal agencies.
- Assist a Native American Indian tribe in Massachusetts in the pursuit and development of its tribal gaming regulatory infrastructure and gaming operations.
- Enjoined the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from shutting down the gaming industry in the midst of a state budget dispute.
- Prevailed at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on the interpretation state tax laws, providing for industry-wide gaming tax refund relief.
- Drafted, secured enactment of, and successfully defended in federal trial and appellate courts legislation to ban Internet sweepstakes cafes.
- Advise clients and interface with regulators on simulated gaming and fantasy sports matters.
- Represented an off-track betting corporation in the opening of the first video lottery terminal (VLT) casino built on New York’s Long Island. The casino is crucial to the implementation of the client’s Chapter 9 bankruptcy plan, which was confirmed by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York. The opening of the casino also prompted the client to hire over 200 additional employees, and its development partner will hire hundreds more to operate the adjacent hotel. The new casino is anticipated to provide millions of dollars in funds for the New York State Board of Education as well as Suffolk County.