The American Gaming Association (AGA) has been honored with the Association TRENDS’ Silver Award for the Best Advocacy Campaign of 2018. Welcoming the accolade, President and CEO Bill Miller noted: “This award is an acknowledgement of the AGA team and our partners’ tireless work to promote the social and economic benefits that legal, regulated sports betting can provide communities across the country.”

He added: “The results of our campaign’s sweeping success can be seen all across America today, with more than two-third of states having taken steps to legalize sports betting. We are honored to receive this distinction, and we share it with everyone who helped to make legal sports betting in America a reality.”

Throughout 2018, the association worked aggressively to educate policymakers, sports stakeholders and the public about the failures of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA), and make the case for legal, regulated sports betting in the United States. AGA effectively quantified the size of the existing illegal sports betting market and the economic opportunities enabled by legal sports betting for sports leagues, states and sovereign tribal nations.

The association’s two amici briefs were cited twice by the Supreme Court in its May 2018 ruling to overturn PASPA.