As do most companies who work with the gaming industry, accounting and business consulting firm RubinBrown keeps a keen eye on Las Vegas. So, as the company expanded, it made sense to plant a stake there.

The company, which started in St. Louis in 1952, made a big addition June 1st when it merged with Stewart Archibald & Barney, an accounting firm based in Las Vegas. The nearly 60 employees from that firm will join a number of transfers from other RubinBrown offices in Denver, Kansas City, and Nashville. Glenn Goodnough, managing partner for Stewart Archibald & Barney, will continue to be the managing partner of the Las Vegas office. RubinBrown now has more than 600 employees.

Over the past decade, RubinBrown has developed its consulting services to gaming regulators and operators nationally. According to RubinBrown chairman John Herber, the Las Vegas market was appealing not only for the thriving business climate, but also for the strategic platform it will provide for RubinBrown’s national gaming practice. “This provides us `boots on the ground’ for our commercial gaming clientele in Las Vegas, as well as the tribal market in the Southwest,” Herber said.

RubinBrown’s gaming practice currently provides audit, tax, and consulting services to commercial and tribal casinos, state lotteries, and online gaming operators. It’s not as sexy, as say, coming up with the latest slot machine or booking the hottest performing act, but it’s a part of keeping the casino trains running. And the biggest locomotive is Las Vegas.

Brandon Loeschner and Daniel Holmes lead RubinBrown’s gaming practice. They focus on adding value through a deep understanding of gaming regulations, with efficient and sustainable compliance programs. Holmes has moved to Las Vegas from St. Louis and is now a partner in the company.

The two provided their thoughts on how the gaming capital has fared in early 2017, as well as some updates outside of Vegas.

“Overall, it has been kind of a soft four months as it relates to gaming revenue, and we’re seeing that on a national level,” Holmes said. “In Vegas you see good hotel occupancy rates and overall tourism but gaming tends to be relatively flat.”

So properties are charging for parking and reducing the freebies. There also is stagnation because Crown Resorts canceled its Alon project and Resort World’s development wasn’t helped by the company’s recent robbery-shooting tragedy in the Philippines.  “Overall, there’s still kind of a pause as it relates to new expansion and growth,” Holmes said.

“Outside of Las Vegas, political gridlock is still the overriding element to expansion prospects across the United States,” Loeschner said. “You could have different story lines for each state, but the expansion of gaming, including in Florida, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, continues to be stalled,” he said. “Illinois has been discussing gaming expansion since 2008 and given the continued budget deficits the discussion will continue each year.”

Holmes added that the most notable exception is in Connecticut, which just passed legislation that would allow the Pequot and the Mohegans to build a tribal casino within Connecticut. “That’s going to be hotly contested and challenged,” he said, especially by owners of the MGM in Springfield, Mass., which is nearby.

Loeschner also provided his opinions on sports betting, skill-based gaming legalization, and the growing eSports market. “As it relates to sports betting, the general theme is we believe it’s going to happen,” he said, noting that the American Gaming Association has “taken a pretty strong position on helping the industry and Washington understand that it’s out there.” The bigger challenge, he said, is repealing PASPA and giving the decisions back to the states.

“With eSports, there’s not as much action on the regulation front,” he said. “But it continues to catch the eye of the gaming world because of the sports nature and the in-game betting and the relation of skill-based versus nonskill-based games.”

Holmes, though, sees a time when eSports lounges become commonplace. “If e-Sports gets traction here [in Las Vegas] it would go across the country,” he said. “It could be the new poker room for the next generation.”