LAS VEGAS, NV – David Lucchese and Marcus Prater have been named recipients of the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers’ (AGEM) 2026 Memorial Awards. Lucchese will receive the Jens Halle Memorial Award Honoring Excellence in Commercial Gaming Professionalism and Prater will receive the Peter Mead Memorial Award Honoring Excellence in Gaming Media & Communications.
AGEM created the unique annual awards program to acknowledge Halle’s and Mead’s lasting impacts on gaming. AGEM formally recognizes the honorees each year at the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) in Las Vegas, and this year’s awards ceremony will take place at an exclusive event during G2E on the afternoon of Wednesday, September 30.
David Lucchese is a gaming industry veteran with more than 35 years of experience spanning sales, operations, and executive leadership. Beginning with Bally, Casino Data Systems, Aristocrat and then Global Cash Access, Lucchese served in leadership roles within key gaming suppliers as the industry matured and grew. Most recently, he served as an 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 the planning and execution of Apollo Global Management’s acquisition of Everi and IGT in 2025. Since 2015, Lucchese also served as both a President and key board member of AGEM.
“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,” said Ryan Comstock, AGEM Board of Directors Chair who also serves as CEO as Ainsworth Game Technology. “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 spanning both casino operations and gaming manufacturing. While he began his gaming career in marketing, first for operator Ameristar and then suppliers Sigma Game and Bally Gaming, Prater transitioned from board involvement at AGEM via his role at Bally and became AGEM’s Executive Director in 2008. There he helped transform the organization into a globally recognized trade association and elevate the influence of gaming suppliers worldwide until his departure in 2022.
“AGEM is not where it is today without Marcus Prater,” said Daron Dorsey, AGEM President & CEO. “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.”