“I think as a country and as a society, we’re coming up to a point where we’ve got to make a decision. Are we going to go down the path of the gamification of society or are we going to try to put some guardrails and restrictions in place?” ~ Oliver Barie
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*Straight to the Point uses AI to help write show notes.
In this episode of the Straight to the Point Talking Shop podcast, Oliver Barie, Government Relations Director for the National Association Against iGaming (NAAiG), sat down to present the opposition side of the legalization argument.
Barie’s journey into the gaming industry began with a law school thesis on Indiana’s gambling history, which later led to his current role lobbying against iGaming expansion for the NAAiG.
Throughout the episode, Barie outlined the NAAiG’s primary concerns:
The social harms of online gambling, including the gamification of society.
Potential job losses in brick-and-mortar casinos.
Economic impacts on communities and state lotteries.
Barie and the NAAiG believe that legalization leads to increased problem gambling, especially among young males, and fails to eliminate illegal markets due to confusion, as evidenced by Pennsylvania’s recent report showing over 10% of adults still using unregulated sites.
I gently pushed back, offering my perspectives on regulation versus prohibition, and wondering if a middle ground can be found that includes legalization, but with strict guardrails. Barie was more skeptical of middle ground solutions like betting caps or hold-harmless funds, insisting that harms can’t be fully legislated away.
A point of agreement was casinos’ role as community anchors, providing jobs, events, and local economic activity that online platforms can’t replicate.
You can follow the NAAiG on X here
For more on the NAAiG’s anti-online gambling stance you can listen to my previous podcast with Mark Stewart, Executive Vice President and General Counsel at the Cordish Companies and a board member of the NAAiG:
