BOSTON — A former New Jersey law enforcement official said Tuesday she would bring the lessons that were learned from investigations of that state’s gaming industry to her new post on a panel that will oversee casino gambling in Massachusetts.

Gayle Cameron was named by Attorney General Martha Coakley to fill the second of five positions on the new gaming commission. Under the casino law signed by Gov. Deval Patrick last year, Coakley got to appoint a member to the panel with a law enforcement background.

A Massachusetts native, Cameron, 55, joined the New Jersey state police in 1980 and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel, the second-highest leadership position on the force, before retiring in 2008.

Cameron said she participated in and oversaw investigations into the gaming industry in Atlantic City and will use that experience to try to keep casino gambling as free of crime and corruption as possible in the Bay State.

“I think there are individuals who will make attempts to do things that may not be legal,” Cameron said. “I’m not naive, I don’t anticipate everything running smoothly.”

But she added that Massachusetts can learn from some of the pitfalls that New Jersey encountered after becoming only the second state to legalize casinos in the 1970s, including what she described as early “turf wars” between various law enforcement agencies that were overseeing them.

“It was trial and error in New Jersey,” Cameron said. “With many of our investigative techniques, things have been learned over the years about criminal enterprises, how they would attempt to infiltrate, and I think there are best practices now.”

Coakley said one key difference is that the Massachusetts law allows for only three resort casino licenses while Atlantic City initially had almost unlimited casino development.

Cameron was born in Cambridge and raised in Weymouth. She holds a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education from Bridgewater State College and a master’s degree in education from Seton Hall University.

Coakley said Cameron has the “experience, the expertise, the integrity and the vision” to serve effectively on the gaming panel, which will award the three casino licenses along with one slots parlor license, and will then have broad powers to regulate the nascent industry.

The commission will form its own gaming enforcement unit with the power to issue subpoenas and refer cases for civil and criminal prosecution. It will also be responsible for coordinating investigative duties with the state police and attorney general’s office.

In December, Patrick named Stephen Crosby, a one-time Secretary of Administration and Finance, to the $150,000-a-year position as chairman of the commission.

State Treasurer Steven Grossman also has one appointment to the panel – a member who must have strong financial expertise – and the remaining two appointments will be made jointly by Patrick, Coakley and Grossman. The deadline for the panel to be fully in place is March 21.

Grossman, who is expected to name his choice shortly, has said that the $112,500 annual salary for the associate commissioners has caused several prospective candidates to bow out because they can earn considerably more in the private sector.

Coakley said the salary was not an impediment to her selection process and that Cameron was selected from among 10 candidates who were interviewed for the job.