Nevada Gaming Control Board chair announces departure ahead of schedule
Brin Gibson to exit regulator after just two years as Silver State looks within for new lead
Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) chairman Brin Gibson will exit from the lead role with the Silver State regulator at the end of November, the Nevada governor’s office has confirmed.
According to the governor’s office, Gibson, whose term had previously been set to expire in January 2023, informed Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak earlier this year of his desire to pursue a professional opportunity elsewhere and would not seek reappointment to the role.
A former litigator, Gibson served as Sisolak’s general counsel from January 2019 to January 2020, before leaving to join the law firm of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. He later joined the NGCB replacing Sandra Douglass Morgan.
In a statement, Gibson highlighted the NGCB’s work both to date and prospective challenges facing the regulator in the future.
“I am proud of the work we have accomplished, and I know there is so much more ahead for my colleagues,” he said.
NGCB current board member and former litigation attorney Brittnie Watkins has been pigeonholed as the new chairman and becomes just the second woman of color to chair the gaming regulatory agency after Sandra Douglass Morgan.
Morgan, Gibson’s predecessor, resigned from the NGCB in 2020 to become a board member with global asset management firm Fidelity Financial and later president of the Las Vegas Raiders in July this year.
The appointment of Watkins to the chairman role must first be ratified by new Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo, when he is sworn in as governor in January.
The departure of Gibson prior to his scheduled term expiry date leaves the normally three-person board with just two members to deliberate business in the NGCB’s December session.
The third of the trio of NGCB members, Philip Katsaros, is also scheduled to leave the board when his term expires in January.
Outgoing Governor Sisolak praised Gibson’s strong leadership but commended Watkins as being “more than ready” to take up the senior role at the NGCB.