November 8, 2018
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP is pleased to announce that the firm has launched a new practice group focused on betting and gaming. This multi-discipline and multi-jurisdictional practice group will handle complex litigation, regulation and compliance, and corporate and real estate transactions. The new Betting and Gaming Practice Group is led by London partner Jonathan Earle, Los Angeles partner Kevin Masuda, and Hong Kong partner Graham Winter.
“Since our firm succeeded in persuading the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the federal limits on sports gambling in the U.S., we have seen activity in the sector take off,” said Ken Doran, Chairman and Managing Partner of Gibson Dunn. “We can offer our clients in the gaming industry a unique combination of experience that we believe no other firm can offer: a superior regulatory and compliance capability along with a market-leading transactional practice. The new Betting and Gaming Practice Group will allow us to focus on the needs of our clients in a more coordinated, efficient and effective manner.”
“In London, we’ve represented our European online gaming clients in their most significant M&A activities in addition to helping them to develop their U.S. online and mobile gaming offerings,” said Earle, Co-Chair of the new group. “It benefits all of our gaming-related clients to have strategic and centralized advice focused on their industry in the UK, the US and Asia from one firm in a manner that best fits with their own strategies.”
About the Betting and Gaming Practice Group
Gibson Dunn represents clients engaged in the betting and gaming industry. Leveraging a thorough understanding of the industry, the firm handles clients’ most important and complex corporate and real estate transactions, litigation and other legal challenges. The firm’s experience includes:
- Casinos & Resorts – Gibson Dunn has represented investors, lenders and operators in acquiring, financing, selling and developing some of the largest hotels and resort communities throughout the world. Gibson Dunn’s litigation and labor attorneys have also represented clients in this sector in high-profile cases, including a significant success involving Indian casino gambling in New York.
- S. Sports Betting – Gibson Dunn served as the lead attorneys for the State of New Jersey in 2018 before the Supreme Court, securing the repeal of the federal limits on sports betting in the U.S. Gibson Dunn attorneys have also represented clients on the most significant transactions undertaken since the repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA), including an exclusive joint venture for a major U.S. casino to create a leading U.S. sports betting platform, other commercial partnerships and joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, and technology sourcing arrangements.
- Regulatory and Compliance – Gibson Dunn lawyers have advised clients on multi-jurisdictional betting and gaming regulatory filings and risk assessments in connection with significant merger and acquisition transactions, and in connection with organic operational expansions, and have in-depth working knowledge of the betting and gaming regulatory regimes of over seventy countries around the world. Gibson Dunn lawyers also have advised betting and gaming clients on a range of compliance issues relating to betting and gaming operations, including issues arising under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the U.K. Bribery Act and other anti-corruption laws, and under antitrust/competition, consumer protection, VAT and gaming tax, anti-money-laundering and data privacy laws. GamblingCompliance named Gibson Dunn “Best Regulatory Lawyer or Law Firm of the Year” at its 2018 Global Regulatory Awards.