Brett Abarbanel, the UNLV International Gaming Institute’s (IGI) longtime research director, has transitioned the executive director role as of Jan. 1, 2023.
Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023 | 2 a.m.
Nevada gaming
Brett Abarbanel was raised in San Diego near the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. She was fascinated by the track — mostly because people leaving the facility seemed to snarl up traffic.
But as she got older, she became enamored of how wagering on races worked. She loved math and numbers.
“I found it to be fascinating. When I was of age to place bets, and I have never been a huge gambler, I loved to place a bet to see how it worked,” said Abarbanel, who used that curiosity to a launch career in research studying global gaming and social science applications at UNLV’s International Gaming Institute (IGI).
On Jan. 1, Abarbanel, the group’s longtime research director, transitioned into the role of executive director, replacing Bo Bernhard, who is now the university’s vice president of economic development.
Abarbanel was so determined about exploring how wagering on horse races worked that she got a job at Del Mar during the summers while home from Brown University. She spent countless hours talking to anyone who would listen. That included getting to pick the brain of expert horse racing handicapper Andy Beyer, a longtime journalist with The Washington Post.
When it came time for the undergraduate project in statistics during Abarbanel’s senior year at Brown, selecting a topic was easy: She’d build a model to project the winners of races.
“It wasn’t the most sophisticated model, but it was a neat project to go through,” she said. “It was successful enough that I had fun with it and I didn’t lose any money.”
She arrived in Las Vegas after graduating from Brown, completing her master’s and doctoral degrees at UNLV. She started working for the International Gaming Institute as a graduate student and became a valuable member of the world-renowned research, education and innovation hub for the study of gambling.
It didn’t take long for her to impress others, starting with a project she researched for the Harvard Medical School as a graduate student.
“It became very clear that she could closely work with the Harvard medical professors and could be the liaison (for the institute),” Bernhard said. “Anyone who has met her has been struck by her genius. But she lacks the arrogance that too often comes with that level of intelligence. She is as nice as she is smart, and as smart as she is nice. (She is) off the charts on both, which is a hugely important part of leadership.”
As gambling continues its worldwide expansion, IGI remains busy with research to assist jurisdictions with regulation, educational programs and best practices. She has been part of presentations in more than 20 countries and dozens of U.S. states, tailoring the information to the concerns of the group looking to regulate the industry.
One example was a 2017 trip to Tokyo, where the IGI’s research detailed the socioeconomic influence of building a gaming resort in a community where there previously wasn’t one.
The research looked at the impacts the resort would have on job growth, nearby business development, public health and social issues. It also drew comparisons to Nevada, and detailed how organized crime was removed from the gambling industry as it became more corporate and regulated.
The presentation took place in front of 1,000 attendees, including local and federal lawmakers, she said. The following morning, she picked up the local paper and saw blown-out coverage of the visit — which she had to find someone to translate into English.
“It talked about the international impact we are making at UNLV. It was very flattering to hear,” she said.
Abarbanel also serves as a professor at UNLV’s William F. Harrah College of Hospitality and has an affiliate research position at the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre in Australia. She was head of social and recreational gambling research at the UCLA Gambling Studies Program before returning to UNLV in 2016 as IGI’s director of research.
“She is pure genius and she has been that way since the moment she arrived on the UNLV campus,” Bernhard said. “These are the kind of brains we are lucky to attract in Las Vegas. The gaming institute is so much more than pure gambling. It’s a massively complex global industry that needs recognized global intelligence. Brett is not only that, she is elite.”
She is considered an expert in responsible gaming, gaming operations and technology, and the intersection of gambling with esports, the university said.
Her knowledge of how esports works led to a spot as the founding director of the Nevada Esports Alliance, a group advocating for developing best practices at the intersection of esports and regulated gambling.
Abarbanel also was pegged to serve on the Nevada Gaming Control Board’s first-ever Esports Technical Advisory Committee to make recommendations on how to maintain integrity in esports when betting is involved.
“That was a really neat experience,” she said. “The big question is whether esports can get into current regulations in wagering, or is it unique enough to need its own regulation?”
The seven-member advisory committee in the fall recommended casino sportsbooks allow wagering on esports in the same manner of traditional sporting events. Board regulators will meet this month to consider the recommendation.
Becoming intimate with esports is a prime example of how IGI’s work is consistently evolving, as “something new always exists in the gambling world, as human beings are always finding new ways to take risks gambling,” Abarbanel said.
And she’s happy to be leading the charge.
“The real-world impact is a huge part of what we do,” Abarbanel said. “You come to us for answers. We are a neutral and objective source. We want to be there to solve problems.”
