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00:00Okay, now DraftKings making a move, a progressive move, I think that most other companies are
00:08also going to do or have done in the past, adding someone from the government or someone
00:13you would say in legislation to become their responsible gaming leader here.
00:19And in this case, her name is Lori Kalani.
00:21Tell us more, Sam, about her and what her role will be with DraftKings.
00:26Yeah, DraftKings announced earlier this week that Lori Kalani is going to be the chief
00:30responsible gaming officer at the company.
00:33It's a new position they've created and haven't really provided much details about what exactly
00:38she'll do aside from leading, you know, efforts around responsible gaming and report directly
00:43to their CEO.
00:44But it's really interesting, her background here is not directly in healthcare, in addiction,
00:51in responsible gaming.
00:52Like we've seen some other companies like PrizePix just announced that they were hiring
00:56a similar position with someone who actually had experience in states doing this.
01:01Kalani has spent about 15 years in Washington, D.C. at different firms, essentially developing
01:07and cultivating relationships with different state attorney generals around the country.
01:13There's been a number of New York Times articles about the firms that she's worked for and
01:18kind of, you know, have influenced different people through whether it's lavish gifts or
01:23campaign donations, essentially kind of saying that their whole mission is to help their
01:27clients avoid becoming targets of investigation.
01:31So it's not clear that that's what she'll be doing for DraftKings here.
01:35But she does have this, you know, decade and a half of experience lobbying and has these
01:39really, you know, crucial relationships for companies like DraftKings and in the sports
01:45betting industry, which we've seen increasingly fall under a microscope here, whether it's
01:49Congress considering legislation that would ban certain advertisements, ban the use of
01:55AI to acquire customers and even limit what people can bet.
02:01It seems like we're at a time in the industry where they're really thinking about, OK, we
02:04need to get in front of maybe investigations before they happen.
02:08Certainly, I don't know of any investigations DraftKings is currently under in different
02:12states.
02:13There's various lawsuits in places like Massachusetts, but nothing really major yet.
02:18So this could be them kind of getting in front of that, bolstering it.
02:21I imagine a lot will be around responsible gaming, obviously, because that's the role.
02:26But again, she doesn't really have that experience up her sleeve.
02:30She's done work with a lot of different kinds of companies.
02:33So it'll be interesting to see how this develops.
02:35And it'll be interesting to see if other companies try to follow suit in terms of hiring former
02:40lobbyists to head responsible gaming.
02:43We've certainly seen all the scandals and everything.
02:45Whether you want to take it as sports books, legal sports betting, working the way it's
02:49supposed to and catching bad actors, or look at it from the light of, hey, it's bad press
02:55either way.
02:56Headlines are going to always spark some sort of reaction, even if it's good.
03:00It'll be interesting to see if more places start to do this kind of thing and what she
03:04actually ends up doing for DraftKings long term.