Today's "Interesting Person" is Gary Fears, who has probably had as interesting a life as ten of your next door neighbors! Gary has been a dedicated public servant, a real estate developer, a successful investor, and also actively involved in helping Indian Nations facilitate the implementation of Casinos. Yet, whenever you have someone willing to get involved in things and try to have a positive effect, there are always detractors, it seems to come with the territory!
We are featuring Gary here today to highlight some of the more interesting facets of his career history. Gary Fears is one of those people who wear many hats at the same time, and does it well.
As an example, today Gary runs Affinity Poker LLC, a consulting company that specializes in the nuances that involve Indian Casinos. Gary first got involved with successful gambling enterprises by founding Metro Tourism. Metro Tourism was the forerunner to Argosy/Penn Gaming (a NYSE company), which today is a leader in the riverboat casino industry.
Gary then took his expertise in casinos and class II gaming to the issues concerning Indian Gaming, helping to facilitate the opening of the Coconut Creek Casino, in Coconut Creek, Florida. Run by the Seminole tribe, Coconut Creek is one of the most successful class II casinos in the country, and generates profits in excess of $100 million a year. Coconut Creek Casino was one of the first Indian Casinos in the country and was groundbreaking in what it did to improve the economic status for tribe members.
Gary and his company Affinity Poker now are providing assistance to Indian Tribes that are preparing for the legalization of Internet poker. With the introduction by Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) of H.R.2366 to legalize and regulate Internet Poker, this becomes an imperative that Indian Tribes be prepared for the coming legalization. H.R.2366 specifically includes provisions for Native American Tribes to be included in the proposal, if they currently have a casino. Lobbying on these issues is important to Gary, as is the preparation of the tribes to be able to move quickly once the bill passes and becomes law.
Gary's educational background prepared him well for having a number of varied and successful companies. Gary received his B.A. in Government from Southern Illinois University, with additional studies in Business Administration, Marketing and Economics. He also completed his M.S. in Urban Studies, Southern Illinois University.
Gary Fears is an active investor and mentor for companies, having invested in companies such as Dent Wizard, which grew to an international company. Gary is also an investor in Tactical Air Defense Services (TADS), which provides Tactical Air training in support of government contracts both here and abroad.
Now how did a specialist in Indian Gaming issues become involved in military training companies? Well, we haven't told you about his giant cargo plane he owns (Il-78) that he wants to use possibly for fire-fighting, or maybe for support of our troops abroad. And we haven't touched upon his public service or lobbying efforts yet. We will save that for the next Blog post.
See... we told you Gary Fears was more interesting than any ten of your average neighbors! (To Be Continued)
Here is another summary on Gary Fears from his website.
Here is another summary on Gary Fears from his website.
