The annual Global Gaming Expo, or G2E, has gotten underway in Las Vegas.
G2E is an annual convention for the gaming industry, looking at innovations, ideas and strategies for the coming year and beyond.
"It has traditionally been the place that the gaming companies, the manufacturers unveil all their new products what is coming into the next year," said Howard Stutz, executive director of CDC Gaming Reports.
The conference is also a chance for gaming industry insiders to talk about some of the big issues the industry is facing, and to get educated on them.
Stutz said the convention can be a "sensory overload" so it is important to pace yourself.
Besides giving the gaming industry a look at what's ahead, G2E brings in 30,000 people to Las Vegas.
"I think it's important because it brings people to the state," Chris Sieroty with GamblingCompliance said. "Thirty-thousand people that stay in hotel rooms, gamble, have meetings, have dinner. Economically, it's important for the state. It's one of the major conferences."
The big topic at this year's conference is sports betting. The Supreme Court recently ruled a law banning sports betting in most states was unconstitutional.
That decision allows individual states to decide whether they're going to allow sports betting.
Sieroty says gaming companies are already looking for partnerships as the industry starts to open up in several different states. However, he said state regulators are going to take their time.
"It's not a gold rush," he said. "It's going to take a while. It's going to open up slowly."
He says it will be a three or four year process before sports betting is as widely available in some states as it is in Nevada.
Stutz said the big challenge is the industry is new, and a lot of details of how to manage it are being worked out.
Neither of them expects Congress to get involved in the regulation of the sports betting despite a recent hearing about the issue, where Nevada Gaming Control Board chair Becky Harris spoke.
Stutz says even the most ardent opponents of gambling see it as a states' rights issue.
Chris Sieroty, U.S. editor, GamblingCompliance; Howard Stutz, executive editor, CDC Gaming Reports
