AGEM will honour Lucchese and Prater during G2E Las Vegas for their contributions to gaming suppliers and industry communications
The Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers is using its 2026 Memorial Awards to recognise two executives whose careers have helped shape the supplier side of the global gaming industry. By naming David Lucchese and Marcus Prater as this year’s honorees, AGEM is also highlighting the importance of commercial professionalism, trade association leadership, supplier advocacy and industry communications in a sector increasingly defined by technology, regulation and international market expansion.
David Lucchese and Marcus Prater have been named recipients of AGEM’s 2026 Memorial Awards, the annual programme created to honour the lasting industry contributions of Jens Halle and Peter Mead. Lucchese will receive the Jens Halle Memorial Award Honoring Excellence in Commercial Gaming Professionalism, while Prater will receive the Peter Mead Memorial Award Honoring Excellence in Gaming Media & Communications.
The awards are formally presented each year during Global Gaming Expo (G2E) in Las Vegas, with this year’s ceremony scheduled to take place at an exclusive event on Wednesday, September 30. Previous AGEM Memorial Awards presentations have also taken place at G2E, underlining the event’s role as one of the global gaming supplier sector’s principal meeting points.
David Lucchese is a gaming industry veteran with more than 35 years of experience across sales, operations and executive leadership. His career has included roles with Bally, Casino Data Systems, Aristocrat and Global Cash Access, before his later executive work at Everi.
Most recently, Lucchese served as Executive Vice President at Everi, where he led sales and marketing initiatives, managed the strategy and development of the company’s interactive division, and played a key role in planning and executing Apollo Global Management’s acquisition of Everi and IGT in 2025. Since 2015, he has also served as both President and a key board member of AGEM.
Ryan Comstock, Chair of the AGEM Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer at Ainsworth Game Technology, said: “Dave Lucchese is someone who epitomizes what AGEM wishes to honor with this award, through his sense of humanity in a competitive business, his willingness to go the extra mile and his longstanding dedication to the health of our industry, among his many qualities as an executive. He has remained a reliable friend to countless colleagues, co-workers, competitors and customers in the gaming industry throughout his career. As we turn to this next decade of our annual AGEM Memorial Awards, I am so proud that we can celebrate the contributions and career of Dave in this small way.”
Marcus Prater is a respected gaming industry executive with nearly three decades of experience across casino operations, gaming manufacturing, marketing and association leadership. He began his gaming career in marketing, first with operator Ameristar and later with suppliers Sigma Game and Bally Gaming.
Prater moved from AGEM board involvement through his role at Bally to become AGEM Executive Director in 2008. He remained in that position until his departure in 2022, during which time the association developed from a smaller supplier group into a globally recognised trade body representing gaming manufacturers and technology providers. Industry coverage of his succession noted that Prater had served as AGEM Executive Director since 2008 and had overseen a period of significant membership growth.
Daron Dorsey, President and CEO of AGEM, said: “AGEM is not where it is today without Marcus Prater. What started as a relatively small group of companies forming a trade association, AGEM became a global organization that found its voice through Marcus’s leadership and established long-term relationships that remain in place today. Our industry, and AGEM, are both stronger today due to seeds Marcus helped plant and grow and we will continue to benefit from those endeavors well into the future. We are so happy to recognize Marcus with this year’s Peter Mead Award.”
The Jens Halle Memorial Award recognises commercial gaming professionalism in the global supplier sector. Nominees must have at least 10 years of experience working in the global gaming supplier sector and demonstrate qualities associated with Halle’s career, including professionalism, business success, international scope, attention to detail, willingness to go the extra mile, humanity in a competitive business environment, respect for fair dealing and dedication to the health of the industry.
The Peter Mead Memorial Award recognises excellence in gaming media and communications. Nominees must have at least 10 years of experience in mainstream media, gaming trade press or gaming company public relations and communications, with qualities including strong reporting and communication, personal contact, willingness to question the status quo, challenging the industry to consider new ideas and identifying trusted partners to improve the overall product.
Previous recipients of the Jens Halle Award include Len Ainsworth, Rick Meitzler, Gavin Isaacs, Tom Nieman, Robert “Bob” McMonigle, Sebastian Salat, Roy Student, Bob Manz, Steve Sutherland and Eric Fisher. Previous recipients of the Peter Mead Award include Howard Stutz, Roger Gros, Frank Legato, Dave Palermo, David Orrick, Alan Feldman, Frank Fantini, Victor Rocha, Lori Nelson-Kraft and Rick Velotta.
Jens Halle, a longtime Bally and Novomatic executive in Europe, was most recently CEO of Gauselmann Group’s Merkur Gaming before his passing. Peter Mead was the founder and publisher of Casino Enterprise Management magazine. AGEM created the memorial awards programme to acknowledge the distinct and lasting impacts both men had on the gaming industry.
AGEM is a non-profit international technology trade association representing manufacturers and suppliers of electronic gaming devices, lotteries, systems, iGaming and online products, game content, table games, sports betting, key components and support products and services for the gaming industry. The association works through regulatory engagement, trade show partnerships, educational alliances, information sharing and corporate citizenship to support gaming equipment suppliers worldwide. Industry reporting has described AGEM as a global supplier association with members across multiple countries and gaming verticals.
For the supplier community, the 2026 awards recognise two careers closely linked to the development of AGEM itself. Lucchese’s award reflects decades of supplier-side commercial leadership, while Prater’s recognition acknowledges the communications, advocacy and organisational work that helped expand AGEM’s influence across global gaming.
