Sandra Douglass Morgan has seen numerous adjustments within the 5 years since she was named to the Nevada Gaming Fee.

The identical yr she grew to become a gaming regulator, the Supreme Court docket cleared the trail for legalized sports activities betting. Since then, 32 different states and Washington, D.C., have launched sports activities betting.

Throughout that point, Douglass Morgan went from gaming regulator to chair of the Nevada Gaming Management Board to the company board of administrators for on line casino large Caesars Leisure. Now, she is president of the Las Vegas Raiders, making historical past because the NFL’s first lady of colour to steer a staff.

Douglass Morgan mentioned her Black and Korean heritage could have helped put her within the highlight, however she pointed to her work outdoors the world of sports activities as being key to bringing range to the Raiders’ entrance workplace.

“It has been exhilarating. I am extremely blessed that I have been given these alternatives, you realize, based mostly on my talent set and my expertise,” Douglass Morgan informed CNBC. “It has been an incredible journey.”

In 2018, when the Supreme Court docket overturned the Skilled and Newbie Sports activities Safety Act, or PASPA , Douglass Morgan discovered herself in an advisory function, serving to to form how different states adopted sports activities betting simply because the playing gold rush was starting.

“You had states and totally different jurisdictions … coming to Nevada and asking our staff, ‘How do you regulate sports activities betting? And what are your relationships along with your licensees and sportsbooks?'” Douglass Morgan mentioned.

Because the groups and leagues attempt to navigate headline-making scandals and potential pitfalls with sports activities betting, Douglass Morgan has introduced huge data and expertise with accountable gaming and integrity.

She mentioned sports activities betting continues to be in its infancy and schooling about playing and all its guidelines is paramount for everybody in sports activities.

“Ensuring that everybody — and it isn’t simply gamers, each single worker that is with a membership, whether or not it’s on the soccer staff facet, or the enterprise group facet — is conscious of the foundations, is conscious of a few of the pitfalls,” she mentioned.

Whereas sports activities and playing mesh and evolve across the nation, the nation’s playing capital has turn out to be a preeminent sports activities vacation spot of its personal.

For the primary time, Las Vegas will host the Tremendous Bowl in 2024 at Allegiant Stadium, the house of the Raiders, the town’s first NFL franchise. Vegas is also eagerly awaiting its first Method One race this fall, and is wooing an MLB staff, the Oakland As. It has already embraced its WNBA Aces and NHL Golden Knights.

The success of sports activities in Las Vegas feels private to Douglass Morgan, who hails from the town and is elevating her youngsters there. On the helm of the Raiders she mentioned she may also help affect philanthropic and academic alternatives that enhance the standard of life for her group.

And the historical past she’s making as president of the Raiders?

“I do really feel a way of accountability to be sure that I am not taking this place without any consideration. I do know that simply being named the president can hopefully encourage, you realize, whether or not it’s ladies and ladies and folks from a wide range of totally different backgrounds to know that there are alternatives for them to be in sports activities administration,” she mentioned.