CDC Team

Cory Roberts (Publisher)

Cory Roberts joined CDC Gaming Reports in early 2013 as a web developer and tech specialist. Since joining, he has helped bring numerous CDC projects to life, including the CDC Gaming Conference Calendar, the afternoon “Last Call” e-newsletter, and special “From the Floor” e-newsletters, and helped organize and expand CDC’s specialty reports into the Focus series, most recently launching Igaming Focus and Focus on Asia. He has also overseen several CDC Gaming Reports website redesigns.

In 2016, Cory was named to the 2017 class of the gaming industry’s “40 under 40” by Global Gaming Business Magazine and in 2020, he was named Publisher of CDC Gaming Reports.

Cory graduated from Case Western Reserve and Cleveland Institute of Music in 2012 with a Bachelor of Music. As a professional music teacher and web designer, he spends much of his time either on the computer or with a guitar in his hands. In his free time, he enjoys researching and playing with technology new and old, working on his house, cooking with his wife, bicycling, or playing old video games.

Alec Rubin (Associate Publisher)

Alec Rubin is a semi-retired engineer making a late-career move into the gaming world. Alec graduated from Case Western Reserve university and began a 33-year stint working in or near the consumer packaged goods industry. First, he was the assistant editor of the monthly Food & Drug Packaging magazine, then later a packaging and industrial engineer for The Clorox Company, Spectrum Brands Global Auto Care, and elsewhere. This was all before his most satisfying stint: as a part-time shop clerk at a secondhand English-language bookstore in Mexico City. Alec Rubin is based today in Cleveland, Ohio.

Ken Adams (Senior Analyst)

Ken Adams has worked in and around the casino industry since 1969. During that time, he founded and published the annual Nevada Gaming Almanac, was the co-author of several industry-related oral histories and an almanac of casino data, and served on many industry-related boards and committee, including the boards of two public companies, a university board, the Gaming Management Advisory Board, the Gaming Industry Association’s Speakers’ Bureau, and the Reno Downtown Improvement Association. He has published the Adams Report (a monthly newsletter) since 1997, the Adams Daily Report (a daily electronic newsletter) since 2002, and the Adams Analysis (a monthly opinion piece) since 2002.

Rege Behe (Lead Contributor)

Rege Behe is a freelance journalist, editor, and writer from Pittsburgh. He worked for more than 20 years at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, where he first covered everything from high school sports to city council meetings. In 1997 he joined the newspaper’s features staff, where he was responsible for pop music and book coverage. Rege has interviewed writers including Michael Chabon, Michael Connelly, and Margaret Atwood; historians David McCullough, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Ron Chernow; and musicians Jon Bon Jovi, Sade, and Nils Lofgren, Steven Van Zandt, and Max Weinberg of the E Street Band. In 2008 he won a Golden Quill award for journalism excellence in the cultural category.
In addition to CDC Gaming Reports, Rege is currently a contributor to Pittsburgh City Paper and Kidsburgh.org.

Scott Long (Editor)

Scott Long is co-founder/co-publisher of Ante Up Poker Media LLC, which publishes the most widely distributed poker magazine in the United States, and co-host of the weekly Ante Up PokerCast. He has been a professional journalist since he started as a sports writer for a local newspaper when he was 16, later working as a reporter, editor and designer for newspapers and news services in Ohio, Washington, D.C., and Florida. A gambling enthusiast for his entire adult life, he also wrote the weekly Bet On It column for the Tampa Bay Times’ free weekly *tbt for several years. He is active in many civic organizations in his home of 20 years, Safety Harbor, Fla.

Deke Castleman (Contributing Editor)

Deke Castleman began his career as an editor and author at travel-guide publisher Moon Publications in 1980, where he helped produce 50 guidebooks to destinations spanning the globe and wrote Moon’s Alaska-Yukon Handbook. When he followed up with a second title, Nevada Handbook, Deke knew he had to become a gambling writer as well as a travel writer. Toward that end, he made a connection with Anthony Curtis, publisher of Las Vegas-based Huntington Press and the Las Vegas Advisor newsletter. His editorial skills helped turn Huntington Press into a publisher of gambling books, including one that he wrote himself, Whale Hunt in the Desert.

Deke joined the CDC team in early 2020 as contributing editor. He telecommutes from the highlands of central Arizona, where his back yard is on a game trail for deer, javelina, coyotes, bobcats, and mountain lions.

Brooke Pierce (Focus Series Editor)

Based in New York City, Brooke Pierce is a writer and editor with over 20 years of experience. She received her B.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from New York University and worked as an editor at TheaterMania.com before becoming a freelancer. Brooke has written articles for numerous websites, covering topics ranging from home security to healthcare, and has extensive experience as a marketing copywriter, crafting everything from email copy to case studies. She has contributed to a number of books, including the TheaterMania Guide to Musical Theater Recordings, Arts America, and the Moon Metro New York City Travel Guide. Brooke wrote the book for the musical “Sympathy Jones,” which premiered at the New York Musical Theatre Festival in 2007, and is now licensed through Playscripts and has had over 40 productions throughout North America.

Jim McGlasson (Advertising Manager)

Jim McGlasson joined the team of professionals at CDC Gaming Reports in 2016 as our Advertising manager. Prior to joining CDC Gaming Reports, Jim spent nearly 30 years in Las Vegas at The Las Vegas Sun as General Manager and later took over the reins at ShowBiz Weekly, leading the team that created the number one tourist publication in Las Vegas. In 2009 he was contacted by the owners of What’s On Las Vegas, a 60-year-old tourist publication. Then, in early 2016, after seven years of dedicated rebuilding of WOLV, it closed following the sudden death of its owner, leaving Jim looking for new opportunities. Jim looks forward to meeting with you and help you with your marketing goals.

Jeffrey Compton (Business Manager)

After semi-successful careers as a tax accountant, corporate auditor, manufacturing executive, realtor, slot club expert and gaming consultant, Jeffrey Compton founded CDC Gaming Reports in 2002 to distribute the Adams Daily Report. Over the subsequent 18 years, the company has created one of the largest gaming-industry business-news websites in the world and now distributes more than 70 newsletters a month to over 23,000 casino-industry executives. In July 2020, Compton retired as publisher and assumed the role of business manager to oversee and solidify the company’s income streams.

Compton has been a guest lecturer on gaming and marketing at the Community College of Southern Nevada, the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and the University of Nevada Reno, and is the author of The Las Vegas Advisor Guide to Slot Clubs. He has a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from Babson College and was in the inaugural class of the University of Nevada Reno’s Executive Development program in 1991.

Ben Blaschke

Ben began his career as a sports journalist in Sydney in 1999 before his interest was piqued by the TV poker shows that frequented the airwaves late at night. He soon found himself not only playing the game but writing about it too – taking on the role of Editor for PokerNews Australasia and subsequently visiting Macau for the very first time in 2008.

He joined IAG’s parent company O MEDIA in early 2013 and has since served as Managing Editor of multiple titles, including foundation publication WGM, while overseeing the company’s editorial team.

Ben took over responsibility for Inside Asian Gaming in 2016 and was responsible for the launch of IAG Breakfast Briefing in April 2017.

John G. Brokopp

John G. Brokopp is a veteran of 50 years of professional journalist experience in the horse racing and gaming industries. He covered Chicago-area Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing in the media and public relations arenas for three decades, authored the yearly recap on thoroughbred racing in the United States for Encyclopedia Britannica’s Book of the Year for 20 years, and has been a freelance gaming journalist and weekly newspaper columnist for many publications including the Chicago Sun-Times. He has made guest appearances as a subject matter expert on horse racing and casino gambling for electronic media outlets both in Chicago and nationally. His current weekly gaming column in The Times of Northwest Indiana has been a fixture in the paper for 25 years.John is a published author of two books on gaming related topics, “Thrifty Gambling” and “The Insider’s Guide to Gambling on the Internet”.

A Chicago native, John holds a B.A. from the University of Illinois. He and his wife of 32 years, Georgette, are the parents of two sons, Jonathan (30) and Joshua (21). Joshua is serving in the United States Army, currently stationed at Ft. Carson in Colorado Springs as a cavalry scout with the Fourth Infantry Division. John and his family reside in Brookfield, Illinois, a southwest suburb of Chicago.

Dennis Conrad

Dennis Conrad is an executive casino consultant and the former Founder and President of Raving Consulting Company. He is a Stanford University graduate with over 45 years of experience in the gaming industry, having held a number of senior-level positions at Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. and Circus Circus Enterprises/Mandalay Resort Group, before starting Raving in 1998. He is the author of “Conrad’s Corners: Observations on Casinos, Marketing and Life” (2004) and “Conrad on Casino Marketing” (2009). He has been a columnist for various major gaming publications for 20 years and is a sought-after speaker at both national and international gaming conferences. Known for his innovation and customer focus, Dennis enjoyed “creating interesting things of value.” Besides building a major marketing consulting company, he began The Casino Marketing Conference, the Indian Gaming National Marketing Conference, and the Host Conference, among others. A big believer in creating worthy recognition, Dennis conceived and helped execute the Casino Marketing Lifetime Achievement Award, The Romero Awards, the Barona/VCAT Award for Excellence in Indian Gaming Marketing, and of course his favorite annual award, the tongue in cheek Best (and Worst) Casino Promotions of the Year. Dennis is semi-retired but still does work for select gaming clients who truly care about being customer and employee-focused. He continues to be a proud supporter of the Notah Begay III Foundation and its critically important work of improving the health of Native American children.

Matthew Crowley

Matthew Crowley has spent three decades in journalism at newspapers in New York state, Nevada and Arizona. Collectively, he has supervised, edited and written for all four major newsroom desks — city, business, features and sports — and edited on department-specific, universal and digital copy desks. He has won national, regional and state awards for reporting and headline writing, helps other journalists as a mentor for the Society for Editing (formerly known as the American Copy Editors Society) and supports journalism as a member of Investigative Reporters and Editors. Examples of his work are at copyjockey.biz.

Buddy Frank

Raised in Northern Nevada, Buddy has been hooked on gaming since he used crayons to mark his mom’s Keno tickets (while dining on “Awful Awful” burgers at the Sparks Nugget). He started covering casinos as a TV journalist in Reno after graduation from UNR. After a decade of news reporting, he made the transition first to casino marketing and eventually slot operations. After 30 years with various casinos, he recently retired from Pechanga Resort & Casino in southern California to spend more time with his wife and three new granddaughters. He now runs a consulting service (BF Slot Strategies) where his focus remains on slot performance, systems, analytics and team training. He has taught classes on gaming/marketing in the past with San Diego State and now is doing the same with UNR. His non-gaming interests are cycling, underwater photography, model trains, Nevada history, UNR sports, and fixing his ever-broken sprinkler system.

Hannah Gannagé-Stewart

Hannah Gannagé-Stewart is an experienced freelance journalist and editor who has worked for a range of high-profile business publications, including Solicitors Journal, The Lawyer, Broadcast and iGaming Business. Her career in business journalism has traversed an array of sectors and specialisms, all of which operate in complex, highly-regulated markets. She is a vocal advocate for equality of opportunity in business and beyond and believes there is a human angle to every story, no matter how commercial the topic.

She is currently deputy editor of Solicitors Journal and continues to cover igaming on a freelance basis.

Mark Gruetze

Mark Gruetze of suburban Pittsburgh was a journalist for more than 40 years before retiring in 2015 as administrative editor and gambling columnist for Trib Total Media. A recreational gambler for most of his adult life, he wrote the Player’s Advantage column from 2010 to 2017, covering gambling from a player’s perspective.

Andrew Klebanow

Andrew Klebanow is the Principal of Klebanow Consulting. With nearly 40 years’ experience in the casino industry he’s spent the past 20 years spent as a gaming consultant. Andrew has completed assignments in jurisdictions throughout the United States as well as in 15 foreign countries. He personally worked on engagements for over 50 U.S. Indian Tribes. Over the course of his career he has visited nearly 1,000 casino properties.
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Prior to his career as a gaming consultant, Mr. Klebanow served in a number of executive positions in the gaming industry including Vice President of Marketing at Sam’s Town Hotel and Gambling Hall in Las Vegas, General Manager at the Santa Fe Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, and Director of Marketing at Alliance Gaming Corporation. He is a periodic lecturer at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration and has taught classes at the University of Nevada Reno’s School of Continuing Education.

Over 110 articles authored by Andrew Klebanow have been published in Indian Gaming Magazine, Global Gaming Business Magazine, Public Gaming International, Inside Asian Gaming and other trade publications. He also contributed academic papers to the Cornell University Hotel and Restaurant Quarterly, the UNLV Hospitality Journal and the Asia Pacific Association for Gambling Studies and Lottery Research Center of China at Beijing Normal University.

Andrew earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree at New York University and a Master’s Degree in Marketing from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration. In 2015, he was named one of 25 People to Watch by Global Gaming Business Magazine.

Bernard Kroviak

Ohio native Bernard Kroviak attended Northwestern University on a baseball scholarship, graduating in 1969 with a BA in Political Science. He taught Government and coached several sports at a small high school near Cleveland and later became the head varsity football coach and assistant principal at North Royalton (OH) High School. Belying the assertion that there are no second acts in American lives, he also, during this period, started a separate career breeding and racing thoroughbred horses, eventually owning a stable of more than 25 mounts. He retired as the principal of North Royalton HS after 31 years in education and now lives in Las Vegas, where he plays golf, bets the horses, volunteers at a local food bank, and enjoys life. He is on a 33-year streak of Kentucky Derby attendance.

Dave Newton

Dave has over twenty years’ experience in Human Resources, including eleven at the VP level. Dave is President of CDC Gaming Seminars and a partner with Hospitality Resources, a company that specializes in helping organizations increase employee engagement and performance. He has taught on-line classes for UNLV and been a presenter on HR topics for a variety of organizations.

Prior to his current position, Dave was VPHR at the Venetian Casino Resort in Las Vegas for six years and led the creation and implementation of all HR policies at that very successful 4,000-employee property. The Venetian won two first-place awards among large employers for Workplace Excellence during Dave’s time there.

Prior to that, Dave was Corporate Director of HR for Station Casinos in Las Vegas and he held several positions (including VPHR and General Manager) during his eleven years with Accor North America, a division of Accor hotels.

Dave has an undergraduate degree from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and an MBA from Pace University in New York City. He holds the senior human resource certifications SPHR and SHRM-SCP.

Valérie Peano

Valérie is an attorney-at-law member of the Rome bar and co-founder of EGLA – European Gambling Lawyers & Advisors (www.egla.eu). Valérie consolidated competence in gambling law starts as a full-time advisor to SOGEI, technological partner of the Italian Gambling Authority within the International Gambling Observatory established from 2004 to 2008.

Since 2009, she is a member of the Executive Committee of the European Association for the Studies of Gambling (EASG). From September 2014 to September 2018, she was appointed as Vice-President. From 2015 to 2018, she was among the Experts group of the Italian Chamber of Deputies IV Permanent Commission (Finance) for gambling matters.

She contributes as coordinator and author to gambling and legal reviews both at the national and international level and is a regular speaker at key gambling conferences.

David Schwartz

Dr. David G. Schwartz directs the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, teaches history, writes for Vegas Seven magazine, and only occasionally pines for his days working as Mr. Peanut on the Atlantic City Boardwalk. His research interests include gambling and casinos, Las Vegas, competitive video gaming, and professional wrestling.

An Atlantic City native and former casino employee, Schwartz has written books about the development of casinos (Suburban Xanadu), the Wire Act (Cutting the Wire), gambling history (Roll the Bones), Las Vegas casino builder Jay Sarno (Grandissimo), and Atlantic City (Boardwalk Playground). He has also edited collections of essays and oral histories. His non-fiction writing has won multiple Nevada Press Association awards, and he was named the 2014 Trippies Las Vegas Person of the Year in recognition of his contributions to the study of gambling and Las Vegas — and perhaps his tasty artisanal nut butters. In his neighborhood, he is more widely appreciated for his macaroons.

Schwartz lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, with his wife and their two children.

Brett Smiley

Brett Smiley is the editor-in-chief of SportsHandle.com, which represents the convergence of his interests and training: sports, sports betting, journalism and law. Prior to co-founding SportsHandle, Smiley covered the NFL, MLB and social news for FOXSports.com. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 2004, Smiley earned his J.D. at Syracuse University College of Law, before practicing commercial litigation in New York City. From there he pursued a career in sportswriting. His interest in sports and sports betting goes back to before he can remember, perhaps when he accompanied his father to an OTB parlor in the ’80s, later telling his first-grade classmates that his father bet on horses for a living. Brett began playing fantasy football in the pre-internet loose-leaf paper era and betting football games on the playground. At Penn, he played offensive guard on the Quakers’ Collegiate Sprint Football Team, earning a letter each season.

John L. Smith

John L. Smith is a native Nevadan who has covered aspects of the gaming industry for more than three decades. A longtime newspaper columnist, Smith was inducted into the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame in 2016, the same year that saw him share in three national journalism awards. He’s the author of more than a dozen books and the father of an adult daughter, Amelia.

Andrew Tottenham

Andrew is Managing Director of Tottenham & Co, a business consulting firm specialising in strategic planning, market assessments, feasibility studies and project development. He founded Tottenham & Co in 1986 which he grew into one of the most prestigious management consulting firms specialising in the international gaming industry. Clients included blue chip gaming operators and suppliers such as; Caesars Entertainment, Las Vegas Sands, MGM Resorts International, Rank plc, Sun International, IGT, KPMG, Deloitte & Touche and Alchemy Partners. The firm has a global reach with clients in all continents. The firm has also acted as advisers to the Government of Hungary and Switzerland.

For five years he was Managing Director Development Europe for Caesars Entertainment and is currently a board member of Groupe Joa, a French casino operator with 22 casinos distributed throughout the country.

In his role as a consultant, he was project lead for US casino resort operators overseeing the development of integrated resorts. He has also analysed the viability of casino resorts throughout the world and developed strategic plans for both online and land-based gaming companies. Mr Tottenham has also project managed the development of online casinos and an interactive tv gambling channel.

Buck Wargo

Buck Wargo is a former journalist with the Los Angeles Times and Las Vegas Sun. Today, he’s a freelance business writer covering a range of issues from gaming to development and real estate for publications across the country, including Las Vegas. Born near Chicago, he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Middle Eastern Studies. He has worked in the Middle East as a foreign correspondent. He currently lives in Las Vegas.

Terrance Oliver (Chairman Advisory Board)

Terrance Oliver is co-owner and chairman of Reno Lumber, a wholesale lumber company, and a principal and member of the board of managers of Unique Infrastructure Group, LLC, a Reno-based developer of a 2,200-acre data center project, Reno Technology Park, located just east of Reno.

Between 1973 and 2012, Oliver held a number of positions in the gaming industry, including marketing director and casino vice president of Harolds Club in Reno and casino vice president of the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, for the Howard Hughes Recreation Group; corporate casino vice president and chief operating officer of Fitzgeralds Gaming Corporation; board director, chairman of the board, and interim chief executive officer for Progressive Gaming International Corporation; and, most recently, as a member of the board of managers and a minority unit holder of Peninsula Gaming, a privately held company that owned and operated five casinos in Kansas, Iowa, and Louisiana.

Terry received a degree in journalism from the University of Nevada in 1971. Since 2008, he has been a member of the board of trustees of the University of Nevada Foundation.

In the early 1970s, Terry was a reporter for KTVN television news in Reno. Since 1996, he has served on the Board of Trustees for KNPB public television in Reno, including three years as board chairman.

Terry Oliver has lived in Reno, since 1960. He served in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1967-1972. He and his wife Linda, who married in 1975, have two daughters.

(Publisher’s Note: In 1990 at a London Gaming conference Terry Oliver met Jeffrey Compton, then a mid-western businessman with an interest in the gaming industry. Over the next few years, Oliver encouraged Compton to pursue that interest – which he did. Depending on who you talk to this is Terry’s most prestigious or dubious achievement.)

Staci Alonso

Staci Columbo Alonso worked in the gaming industry for over three decades with a true passion fueled by gratitude for finding love in her work. Recently retired, Alonso most recently served as Executive Vice President | Innovation and Administration for the company. Her responsibilities include leading the Information Technology, Marketing, Communications, Human Resources and Gaming Innovation and Development divisions.

At the age of 32, she was recognized as one of the “Top 40 under 40” in Las Vegas and in 2011 was the recipient of the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award. In its inaugural year, Alonso was recognized as one of the “Top Ten Women in Gaming” by CEM, alongside legendary Claudine Williams.

After volunteering in Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina, Staci recognized the importance of including pets in emergency rescue plans. While on the board of The Shade Tree, Nevada’s largest women and children emergency shelter, she founded Noah’s Animal House in 2007, the first full-service pet kennel on the grounds of a domestic violence shelter in the country. Since inception, Noah’s Animal House has sheltered over 1400 pets for over 90,000 boarding nights. Noah’s has received national recognition including People magazine, USA Today, Best Friends, Woman’s Day and most recently, captured the heart of UFC Superstar, Ronda Rousey.

She now resides in Reno and is married to Michael Alonso and is devoted to her 17-year-old son, Noah and their crew of dogs and cats.

Howard Stutz

Former CDC Gaming Reports Executive Editor Howard Stutz joined The Nevada Independent in May 2021 to cover the state’s gaming and tourism industry. During two stints with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, from 1987 to 1991 and from 2004 to 2016, Howard covered the gaming industry from a local, statewide, national and international perspective. He earned several awards for his coverage from the Nevada Press Association, including Best Local Column in 2016.

Anthony Curtis

Anthony Curtis is the most recognized and quoted Las Vegas expert in the world. A former professional gambler, Curtis is publisher and CEO of Huntington Press, the world’s preeminent press for gambling titles, and of LasVegasAdvisor.com, the most visited independent online guide to the city and home to its leading consumer newsletter for two decades.

Kenny Epstein

Originally from Chicago, Illinois, Kenny Epstein arrived in Las Vegas in 1960. His career began in the insurance and real estate industries until he transitioned to hospitality and gaming when Caesars Palace opened in 1966. After nine years at Caesars Palace, Epstein met Jackie Gaughan, who offered him a share in his downtown property, the legendary El Cortez Hotel & Casino. Epstein then invested in El Cortez Hotel & Casino and left Caesars Palace to work at the iconic downtown property in 1975.

Presented with a new opportunity, Kenny and partners Michael Gaughan, Frank Toti and a few others opened the Barbary Coast on the Las Vegas Strip in 1979. This was the beginning of the boom in Las Vegas that brought several hotel and gaming projects to fruition along with citywide growth. They continued on to open the Gold Coast Hotel & Casino, The Orleans Hotel & Casino, the Sun Coast and The South Coast.

In 2008, the Epstein family purchased Gaughan’s interest, and he, along with his son and daughters, are now majority owners of the El Cortez Hotel & Casino.

Epstein has dedicated decades of his life toward the improvement and revitalization of Downtown Las Vegas as well as being a founding member of the Keep Memory Alive Foundation, which supports the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health.

Julian Graves

Julian Graves has worked across a wide variety of industry sectors and in a number of capacities. Boasting a deep understanding of data, customer insight and relationship management he has harnessed the power of brands to create and manage highly successful and sustainable businesses with turnover in excess of £30m and teams of 70+.

As a Managing Director at Clarion Events, Julian transformed the Gaming Division into the world’s most successful and respected provider of exhibitions, conferences, training and information for the global gaming industry.

He created the Totally Gaming strategy which underpinned the rebirth of ICE – now the world’s largest gaming business exhibition. He successfully created and launched new events in Brazil, Japan and Africa to support the responsible development and expansion of the gaming industry in these regions and also developed and created Juegos Miami, produced specifically for the Pan-LATAM gaming industry. During his tenure he was responsible for the highest-ranking digital info service, TotallyGaming.com and through acquisition and product development created The Totally Gaming Academy, a practitioner-led, global training service for regulators, operators and suppliers.

Julian is Chairman and Director of Scaleup Advisory at Collingwood Advisory, as well as Non-Executive Chairman of Spectrum Gaming Group and Clarion Gaming.

Marcus Prater

Executive Director Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers (AGEM)

Marcus Prater, with more than 36 years of professional communications experience, serves as Executive Director of the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers (AGEM), a non-profit trade organization comprised of the world’s top gaming industry suppliers whose mission is to further the interests of its members throughout the world. Under his leadership starting in 2008, membership in AGEM has grown from 32 companies to a high of 162 over the past 9 years. Prater previously served as Senior Vice President of Marketing for Bally Technologies, Inc., where he spent a total of nine years at the Las Vegas-based slot machine and systems provider and directed Bally’s global advertising, trade show, machine and systems sales support, media relations and special event functions. Prior to joining Bally in 1999, Prater served as Director of Marketing for Las Vegas-based slot supplier Sigma Game, Inc. Prater, a graduate of the University of Oregon School of Journalism, also previously served as Marketing Communications Manager for Las Vegas-based casino operator Ameristar Casinos, Inc.

AGEM, a non-profit association, leads by following our mission statement:

“The Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers is an international trade association representing manufacturers of electronic gaming devices, systems, and components for the gaming industry. The Association, as a good corporate citizen, identifies and acts upon issues relating to education, trade show representation, regulation, manufacturing and licensing standards, and promotes the expansion of responsible gaming for the benefit of its members and the industry.”

Dr. Stowe Shoemaker

Dr. Stowe Shoemaker is the Dean of the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration and a Lincy Professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has helped game developers test market new casino games (both slot machines and table games), developed programs to measure customer satisfaction for casino and hotel firms, and modeled the success and failure of marketing promotions. In the classroom, he has taught marketing as well as the mathematics of casino games.Dr. Shoemaker has worked with British Airways on their pricing strategy and the training of their revenue managers, and has worked with Accor, Hilton, and Hyatt on their loyalty programs. He has also worked with healthcare organizations on issues of patient satisfaction.

Dr. Shoemaker’s research has won numerous awards, and he has published two marketing textbooks: Marketing Leadership in Hospitality and Tourism: Strategies and Tactics for a Competitive Advantage and Marketing Essentials in Hospitality and Tourism: Foundations and Practices.

Justin Martin (Data Specialist)

Justin Martin is a data scientist, writer, web editor, freelance developer, and general jack-of-all-trades. He holds degrees in English and Information Systems and is currently at work on several projects. He enjoys playing pinball.

Jill (Merk) Maturino (Web developer)

Jill (Merk) Maturino, at Elevate Web Designs, has been in business for over a decade, working with many different types of businesses. CDC Gaming Reports has been a valued client since the beginning. In her personal life, she has a wonderful husband with whom she loves to travel, ski, hike and dine. They can be also found at home with their two young boys and fluffy Australian Shepard, Bella.