Going the Distance
Rhea Loney was raised on horseback under the big skies of Montana. From girlhood, she learned to be hardy.
“That was the mentality growing up—if you get bucked off your horse, you dust off and get back on,” says Loney, now chief compliance officer for BetMGM. “Because of how I was raised, I developed a strong backbone and a sense of adventure and spirit.”
Loney’s parents were rodeo riders who didn’t emphasize the white-collar professions. But an early mentor pointed her to the law, where she excelled. During 10 years as assistant attorney general for the Louisiana Department of Justice, she says, “I really cut my teeth in administrative law, licensing and the workings of a regulatory body.” She also made headlines and set precedent in the “frog juice” horse-doping case, which led to fines and suspensions for eight trainers and a federal prison term for an equine vet.
In 2019, Loney joined Penn Interactive and built the first compliance framework for its online gaming arm. In October 2022, she moved to BetMGM, where she helms a 100-person department in charge of licensing, responsible gaming, online and retail operational compliance and anti-money laundering.
“I didn’t exactly know that what I was getting into,” says Loney of her career shift. “For me as a practicing lawyer, the pace at which we operated was very surprising. Being pulled into very technical conversations in the online space was a challenge, because my background was more legal and regulatory than technical. But it’s been a fun and challenging journey, for sure.
“The early years were very focused on launching. Now the focus is on excellence in compliance as well as on operational efficiencies, processes, policies—just being able to show up the best we can as a company.”
The Pennsylvania-based operator also has its eyes on emerging markets such as Missouri. “Everyone’s watching that very closely,” says Loney. “Alberta could be this year as well.”
Anyone who follows the industry knows that non-compliance, in some cases, topples empires. “There are definitely things that have the risk of keeping me awake at night,” Loney concedes. “So across the board, across the company, you do training, you build the culture of compliance from top to bottom, bottom to top. If you’re doing those things, you’ll get through any issues programmatically.”
She sees parallels between her present responsibilities and her role as a prosecutor. In the Louisiana horse-doping case, “individuals were using illegal substances to essentially get a foot up and cheat, degrading the integrity of the sport as a whole. It’s not unlike the compliance area, where we have integrity issues and processes in place to catch them. As companies, we want to uphold the integrity of sports betting and iGaming as much as possible, and make it safe for everyone to participate, in a fun and responsible way.”
In her spare time, along with riding, Loney is a long-distance ultra-runner. She’s written that competitive runners should “pick races that light the fire inside you… Show up ready to accomplish what you set out to do.”
That philosophy applies in both work and life, she says.
“Running isn’t always easy. Compliance isn’t always easy. But it’s very fulfilling when you finish a very long race or get through a tough work project. And you have to have fun while you’re doing it all.”
