As Editor of Canadian Gaming Lawyer, I am delighted to welcome you to our inaugural edition. The Canadian gaming industry is relatively young and did not exist 30 years ago. Today, it supports thousands of jobs throughout Canada and provides billions of dollars of revenue to our governments that is used for education, health and infrastructure. As the industry has grown, it has become apparent that our laws must develop to assist members of the sector and provide guidance to them whether in dealing with regulatory and integrity issues or day-to-day matters such as employee relations.

The Canadian Gaming Lawyer will be dedicated to this goal, or in a phrase, to advance gaming law through education. Interestingly, this commitment is shared by the International Masters of Gaming Law (IMGL), an organization of which I am proud to be a member, and which is a strong sponsor and supporter of this magazine.

As editor, I promise that we will strive to publish timely articles from a legal perspective. Topical issues involving the industry will be covered, assisting lawyers to better understand the components of the industry and enabling them to properly advise their gaming clients. Concurrently, we will reach out to members of the industry by publishing relevant and timely articles from a business perspective to enable them to gain greater insight into the issues faced on a daily basis.

In this first edition, we will review topics relating to compliance, employee relations, Internet gaming and tracking of financial transactions - to name a few. We will also visit with three winners of the Canadian Gaming Industry Awards sponsored by the Canadian Gaming Association and the IMGL. Our contributors include Patricia Carnevale who works with Bruce Caughill, Vice President Legal / Administration Falls Management Group, Kevin Weber, Chris Jonathan and Chad Finklestein who work closely with me in the Gaming Law section which I chair at Elkind & Lipton LLP, Danielle Bush who focuses on I-gaming law at Chitiz Pathak LLP, Larry Walters of Weston Garrou, Walters & Mooney, in Florida, Tony Coles of Jeffrey, Green & Russell in the UK and Bob Stocker of Michigan. Thank you for stalwart efforts in assisting me on this first edition.

Your views regarding our magazine are important. I am anxious to learn of them and urge you to email me with your comments. At the same time, I want to encourage all readers to contribute to future editions by writing an article and to join with me in supporting the magazine by placing an advertisement in it. Lastly, I want to thank Chuck Nervick of MediaEdge Communications Inc., our publisher, for all of his assistance.

We have high hopes and bold plans for the future. It will be an interesting journey as we go forward and I invite you to come along.

Thank you,
mdliptonqc@aol.com