PA Gaming Control Board Names 3 To Top Staff Positions

HARRISBURG: The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, charged by statute with overseeing the development of slots gaming in the Commonwealth and subsequently regulating the multi-billion dollar industry, today made three appointments to key staff positions, according to Tad Decker, Chairman of the Board.

Richard Williamson, currently Deputy Chief of the Technical Services Bureau at the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, will be Director of Lab/Technical Operations, Decker said, while Maureen Williamson, a Deputy Attorney General in the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, will be Senior Counsel for Rules and Regulations. Michael Walsh, currently a special assistant to the Board, will become Director of Administration.

“Our number one priority is ensuring the integrity of gaming in Pennsylvania, and that means we have to have rigorous testing and certification standards for every slot machine that operates in the Commonwealth,” said Decker. “Richard Williamson has the experience and expertise necessary to give Pennsylvania a top-flight testing and certification program.

“Maureen Williamson has been a key member of the New Jersey Attorney General’s office since 1998 and before that had a successful legal practice that focused on gaming law in New Jersey,” Decker continued. “That range of experience will be a tremendous asset for the Board in the coming months as we move through the licensing process.

“Mike Walsh has been a key player in moving this agency from an idea on a piece of paper to a reality,” Decker added. “Without his work, we would have accomplished a lot less than we have today.”

Richard Williamson has been in his current position since 1991 after serving as assistant director from 1984 to 1991. From 1980 to 1984, he was an auditor and internal controls review coordinator at the Division of Gaming Enforcement. He was recognized as a certified public manager by Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey, in 1988 and graduated from Rutgers in 1975 with a bachelor’s degree in accounting.

Maureen Williamson began her service in the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office in 1998. From 1992 to 1998, she was a partner specializing in gaming law and land use at Maley, Williamson, Hayden & Gmerek in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Before attending law school, she was a manager of the casino accounting and operations unit of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission from 1980 to 1985.

Maureen Williamson earned her law degree from the Rutgers University School of Law in Camden, New Jersey, in 1988. She earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, in 1977.

Prior to joining the Gaming Control Board, Michael Walsh was a special assistant to Governor Edward G. Rendell focusing on gaming-implementation issues. He also served as Executive Assistant to then-Secretary of Administration Robert Barnett. Before that, he was Director of Policy and Communications for then-Senator Allen Kukovich and helped lead the creation of the Smart Growth Partnership of Westmoreland County. He received the partnership’s Distinguished Service Award in 2003.

Walsh earned a Master of Public Management degree from the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in 1999 and a B.S. in Political Science from St. Vincent College in Latrobe in 1996.