Casino equipment executive Mike Dreitzer will become chairman of the Gaming Control Board at the end of June when current Chairman Kirk Hendrick’s retirement takes effect, Gov. Joe Lombardo announced Monday.

Dreitzer has been CEO of Las Vegas-based Gaming Arts, a slot machine and gaming technology developer, since 2018.

Before joining Gaming Arts, Dreitzer was president of Australia-based Ainsworth Game Technology’s North American Division in Las Vegas and the chief operating officer of BMM Americas, a gaming equipment testing lab and gaming consultant.

Dreitzer also worked as a Nevada deputy attorney general, advising the control board and Nevada Gaming Commission.

Germany-based Merkur Gaming is acquiring the interest in Gaming Arts. LLC, and Dreitzer will assist with the company’s transition until he begins his new role with the control board. Merkur is expected to be on the agenda of the May control board meeting to be licensed for its role in the Gaming Arts deal.

Dreitzer is being appointed to finish out the last 18 months of Hendrick’s four-year term. In a statement, Hendrick said he has known Dreitzer for nearly 30 years — they worked together in the attorney general’s office. 

“Handing over the gavel to Mike will be a smooth transition,” Hendrick said in a statement released by the governor’s office. “Mike is the perfect choice based on [his] long career in gaming law, government, regulatory compliance, and business.”

Before joining the board, Hendrick was in private law practice. He previously headed the attorney general’s gaming division in the late 1990s and spent nearly a decade as an executive and chief legal officer for Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Hendrick announced in January that he was stepping away from the statewide, 400-person agency charged with regulating and enforcing the laws associated with Nevada’s largest industry. He said he wanted to give Lombardo time to appoint the next chairman. 

Hendrick was appointed as chairman by Lombardo in January 2023 along with former Judge George Assad, who was named to an open seat on the three-person board. Four months ago, Lombardo named Reno Deputy City Attorney Chandeni Sendall to a four-year term on the board.

Dreitzer, who could not be reached for comment, said in a statement from the governor’s office that he looks forward to “furthering the essential mission of the board.”

In his first year on the control board, Hendrick oversaw a process to eliminate 16 outdated gaming regulations, which complied with a 2023 legislative directive from Lombardo to reduce government bureaucracy. 

He also settled two outstanding matters surrounding Resorts World Las Vegas. 

In December, the control board settled a disciplinary complaint against former Resorts World president and longtime gaming executive Scott Sibella, who effectively ended his career when he agreed to be added to the agency’s “Gray List” of denials, revocations and findings of unsuitability — which comes with a five-year ban from applying to reenter Nevada’s gaming industry.

Last month, Resorts World’s operators agreed to pay a $10.5 million fine — the second largest in Nevada history — for allowing illegal bookmakers to gamble millions of dollars at the Strip property while Sibella was president.

On Thursday, the board announced that MGM Resorts International agreed to pay a fine of $8.5 million to Nevada regulators for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act in 2018 when Sibella was president of MGM Grand.