Brett Abarbanel has been named executive director for the UNLV International Gaming Institute (IGI). IGI is a nonprofit academic center that offers research and educational programs for the global gaming industry.

Nevada is known for its gaming and tourism industry, but there has been a sustained effort to bolster the state’s startup community, particularly in Las Vegas.

The UNLV International Gaming Institute (IGI), an academic center dedicated to gaming regulation, has announced its hiring of Brett Abarbanel as Executive Director. Abarbanel succeeds Bo Bernhard who will transition to serving as UNLV’s VP of Economic Development.

Almost 60 years ago, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King led the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom demanding government recognition of and remedies for the immorality of poverty and inequality. In front of the Lincoln Memorial, Dr. King, who was the last to speak, told 250,000 nonviolent protesters about his now-famous dream for a better tomorrow for his children. A few years later in November 1967, based on a suggestion from Marian Wright Edelman, Dr. King organized the Poor People’s Campaign to focus the civil rights movement on economic justice. Tragically, King was murdered a few months later at the age of 39.

It's one of the most famous scenes from the Martin Scorsese movie "Casino," when Robert DeNiro's character, Sam Rothstein, lists the myriad layers of security used to protect the fictional Tangier from cheaters. At the top of this food chain: the all-seeing surveillance cameras.

It's one of the most famous scenes from the Martin Scorsese movie "Casino," when Robert DeNiro's character, Sam Rothstein, lists the myriad layers of security used to protect the fictional Tangier from cheaters. At the top of this food chain: the all-seeing surveillance cameras.

Brett Abarbanel has been named executive director for the UNLV International Gaming Institute (IGI). IGI is a nonprofit academic center that offers research and educational programs for the global gaming industry.

Brett Abarbanel has been named Executive Director for the UNLV International Gaming Institute (IGI). IGI is a non-profit academic center that offers research and educational programs for the global gaming industry.

While she was an undergraduate majoring in statistics at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, Brett Abarbanel was bankrolled in a poker game by a friend. She’d never played poker before, but the idea of applying ideas she’d learned in classes was intriguing.