Roger Gros, publisher of Global Gaming Business magazine, was honored with the American Gaming Association’s 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award for Gaming Communications.
The award was given to Gros at the AGA Communications Awards luncheon at last month’s Global Gaming Expo.
In addition to being the force behind the leading trade publication for the gaming industry, Gros has been president of Casino Connection International (CCI), the magazine’s parent company, since 2001. CCI also publishes Casino Design magazine, Tribal Government Gaming magazine, G2E Preview magazine and GGB News, the only weekly online magazine covering the gaming industry. Prior to his role at CCI, Gros was vice president of Casino Journal Publishing Group from 1984 to 2000, and he was the founding editor of Casino Player magazine and editor of Casino Journal and the National Gaming Summary.
“Over the course of nearly three decades reporting on this industry, Roger has broken the stories about the people, products and trends that have moved all sectors of gaming forward,” said AGA President and CEO Frank Fahrenkopf. “His integrity and knowledge benefit us all, and his publications are certainly must-reads for anyone looking to keep up with our industry.”
In accepting the award, Gros noted that his career has paralleled the evolution of the gaming industry itself. When he began in the industry after jobs as a dealer in Atlantic City casinos during the 1980s, the entire U.S. gaming industry consisted of New Jersey and Nevada. In witnessing the industry’s evolution through the introduction of Indian gaming at the end of the 1980s, riverboat gaming in the early 1990s, and the expansion that has continued to this day, Gros said he has fought to change the image of the gaming industry in mainstream America, and to counter misinformation on the industry in the mainstream media.
In interviews with media outlets ranging from ABC to CNN, the Travel Channel and local TV and radio, Gros said, he has battled the image of the gaming industry as promoting crime and other social ills, and has sought to bring out the real facts on the industry’s benefits to the communities it serves. He called on all industry members to join in the truth campaign.
“We’re not bad people,” he told the audience at the Communications Awards. “We want to provide entertainment for the part of society that enjoys gambling. We’ve been out front in our efforts to minimize whatever harm our industry sometimes causes, and that is often not recognized by the mainstream media. So it’s not only my mission, it should be the mission of everyone who works in the industry. When you read or see something that is incorrect, or even worse, something that is an out-and-out lie, call them on it. Write a letter or email and let them know that we know they’re in error.”
