Question of the Day - 22 May 2025

As a last resort, the Las Vegas casinos turn to the county District Attorney's office to collect bad debt from gamblers.

If Mr. A takes a marker from a casino, then goes home and doesn't settle up within a specific amount of time (usually 30 days), the casino can deposit the marker (which is essentially a personal check) in its bank account. If the marker bounces, it sets various cogs and gears to cranking; the District Attorney fun generally starts at the end of that short passage with the DA putting out a warrant for Mr. A's arrest. Since that goes out over an extensive network, the first time a law-enforcement officer anywhere in the country pulls up Mr. A's name for some reason (traffic stop? concealed-carry permit? border crossing?), there he is with a living-color warrant issued in Clark County for his arrest. The charge? Defrauding a casino.

Mr. A can be, and often is, jailed till he makes bail. He can be held for extradition to Nevada. Meanwhile, the clock on late fees and fines continues ticking. He'll have to pay up in full before the warrant is retired. And he can even be prosecuted for and convicted of defrauding a casino and then he's a felon.

In essence, the DA is a collection agency for the casinos. 

As for when and how it happened, our book Joe's Dash tells that story in deep detail. That's because Joe Dorsey, the Joe of the title, came up with the whole idea. 

Joe Dorsey was a San Diego detective when he was recruited by the Nevada Gaming Control Board as an investigator. From there he went to work for Steve Wynn at the Golden Nugget as director of security and surveillance; his job description at the GN also involved collecting from gamblers who owed on their markers.

From his experience as a cop, Joe put two and two together and figured out that, since bouncing a marker was no different than writing a bad check, it was a crime that could and should be prosecuted. He put together what was, in essence, a police report on a deadbeat gambler from whom he was having trouble collecting, wording it exactly as he would for a check kiter. 

Then he presented his case to John Moran, the Clark County Sheriff at the time. This was in 1988. Joe and Moran were friendly. Moran assigned a detective to take Joe's case to the District Attorney. The DA picked up the ball and ran with it. It didn't hurt that the DA took a 10% commission of the total collection.

Though it required another few years for all the casinos to sign up for this "service" from the Clark County District Attorney's office, it did catch on and it's been policy ever since.