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Gaming policy overlord Joe Brennan Jr skips goose hunts and talking points in favor of actually getting things done.   While New Jersey lawmakers like state Senator Ray Lesniak and Governor Chris Christie are getting all the credit in the local, national and even international press, D.C.-based lobbyist Joe Brennan Jr. is widely recognized by the industry’s cognoscenti as the indispensable choreographer of the state’s happy march toward unprecedented gambling liberty. Right click save as to download Subscribe in a reader Subscribe to QuadJacks » The Gaming World by Email Brennan is the director of IMEGA (Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association), a “professional association dedicated to fostering cooperation between the online gaming industry and government at all levels, and to promote innovation, openness and freedom on the Internet.” Brennan’s first and, for a year, only appearance on QuadJacks Poker Radio had memorably been in May 2011, just a few weeks after Black Friday. After a very impressive showing at iGaming North America this year, it was a privilege to have one of the industry’s brightest thinkers and game-changers on The Gaming World for this extended interview on Tuesday, April 10, 2012. The Brennan Method While many other states are still just toying with the idea, New Jersey has been sprinting toward intrastate online gaming, especially after the DOJ memo, in remarkably rapid fashion. Brennan’s standout success, hopefully replicable elsewhere, lies in a calculated yet sincere pragmatism that wins the hearts and minds of the legislators far more ably than methods tried elsewhere. He explains: “Gaming affects legislators all over the state, not just in Atlantic City. We came in and listened to them first, and then responded in ways that were meaningful to them. Gaming taxes and revenue may not be key issues for politicians in the north of New Jersey, but what might be key issues to them are jobs and quality of work. North Jersey, for example, has the highest IT infrastructure density than anywhere else on the planet. The igaming industry is an industry that could use an awful lot of this unused capacity. In North Jersey, that means jobs, investments, ribbon-cuttings for these politicians. That’s something they can bring back to their constituencies.” This approach is refreshingly different from the broken record of The O’Jays’ “For the Love of Money” looping on the iPods of most other swaggering lobbyists. “Most of the rhetoric,” continues Brennan, “both at the federal and state level, is based on this idea that, well, this is the kind of money that you can make from online gaming, and everybody else is already doing it, so why don’t you do it?” Why doesn’t this work more often? “Despite what many citizens think, you don’t actually get too far by making legislators feel filthy.” States vs Federal Brennan has been described as a champion of states’ rights at a time when most of the big boys are pushing heavily for what Brennan believes to be a dreamy but unlikely federal bill. On...