Interesting question. The trespass warning, reproduced at the end of this answer, can be read to you if you overstay your welcome on any private property, which includes all casinos, where in theory you're simply an invited guest during your stay. If the warning is read to you and you then attempt to re-enter the property, you're liable to be arrested.
To clarify the scope of these bans in the corporate age, we checked with someone we know who's been 86'd (slang for "read the trespass warning") from many a casino. His understanding is that you're barred only from the specific property where the incident takes place.
However, we like to be thorough, so we called security at Harrah's, MGM Grand, and Orleans, and each time were told categorically that a ban in one of their properties applies to the whole group, and that's not just limited to their casinos in Nevada. So if you get banned at the Rio in Las Vegas, according to information from Harrah's security, you cannot play at Bally's Atlantic City, Caesars Indiana, or the Horseshoe Tunica, either.
So which is it? We contacted the Chief Deputy Attorney General for the State of Nevada, in the hope of getting a definitive answer. Here's what he had to say on the subject: "It depends on what's told to the patron when he or she is eighty-sixed. Security could tell someone that he's trespassed from more than one property." But, by extension, if the sweeping nature of the ban is not specified at the time the warning is read, then in theory that person is free to enter sister properties unless or until he's read the warning separately there.
Armed with this additional insight, we called another casino at random, the Aladdin, and questioned security there. The extremely helpful source concurred with the Attorney General's office, namely that it depends on what you're told at the time you are trespassed. If the person who reads you the trespass warning merely refers to the property that you're standing in at the time, then that's the only place where the ban applies. However, if you're told that you're also banned from other properties, then you are. So if you're being read the act and the person administering doesn't specify, don't ask for clarification about where the ban applies.
This made sense, but still seemed a little vague. So, still in search of the definitive answer on this murky subject, we turned to the Gaming Control Board. Here's what we were told: Some properties have corporate security officers, whose authority stretches across all properties owned by that corporation and who can legitimately effect a group-wide ban. It's up to individual properties to decide how much authority their security officers have.
Still, if the property you're asked to leave is part of a group, the property's representative must name all the properties in the group when he or she reads the trespass warning. If they do and you then enter another property in that group, you can be arrested for trespassing.
Realistically, even if the respresentative doesn't specify the other properties during the barring, it'll be your word against his. If the police get involved, the cops (as cops do in Nevada) are likely to take the side of the casino. The more likely scenario, however, is that you'll simply be read the trespass warning at the second property, and any other property in the group that you subsequently attempt to enter, until you're unambiguously barred from them all. If you make any trouble during the process, expect to be photographed (either with a CCTV or a hand-held camera) and your image circulated among all properties in the group.
Finally, at the recent gaming conference in Lake Tahoe, we had the opportunity to pose this question to Las Vegas attorney Robert Nersesian, currently the lawyer most sought-after by advantage players bringing actions against casinos. What he had to say on the subject generally supported what appears above. If you'd like to know more of his insights and expertise, check out his title, Beat the Players: Casinos, Cops, and the Game Inside the Game
