In your answer to the QOD from June 13, 2016, you mention that the Venetian was caught and fined for rigging a drawing in favor of a high roller. What are the details on how the rigging was uncovered?
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal in an article published on Feb. 25, 2004, the Venetian self-reported
the cheating incident, blaming it on a pair of “rogue executives” who were summarily fired. One of them — or
one of two accomplices (also fired) — concealed the winning drawing ticket in the sleeve of his sports coat, then pretended to draw it from a drum. It was a costly confession for Las Vegas Sands, which paid $1 million to settle the issue.
Promotional casino chips worth $10,000 and $20,000 were also “won” on a predetermined basis. The primary beneficiary of the scam was an Asian high roller who received a Mercedes Benz SUV to placate him for heavy losses during Chinese New Year.
"The fact that they did it is terrible. Casinos can't operate that way. To be fined a large amount for rigging a contest is appropriate,” LVA’s Anthony Curtis said at the time.
The car scam was one of 12 counts against Las Vegas Sands. These included chastisement of the executives who knew about the rigged contest, but did nothing to stop it; a sports book employee placing proxy bets for an out-of-state gambler and a Canadian representative of Sands structuring currency deposits to avoid having to report them to the federal government; failing to account for promotional disbursements; improper voiding of markers; and the sale of counterfeit wine -- “counterfeit” in the sense that it was bought from Mexico when Nevada casinos are mandated to purchase all their liquor from Nevada-licensed distributors.
The contest-rigging executives may have lost their jobs, but they got off with anonymity in the final Control Board settlement. The latter was split between a $663,000 fine and $337,000 in investigative costs.
The Venetian did not plead guilty to every count, denying allegations of the proxy-bet allegation and that it was awarding more credit to certain players than they rated.
Last January, it was fined just under $7 million by the Justice Department because “certain Sands executives knowingly and willfully failed to implement a system of internal accounting controls to adequately ensure the legitimacy of payments to a business consultant who assisted Sands in promoting its brand in Macao and the PRC, and to prevent the false recording of those payments in its books and records.” What's more, Sands fired the whistleblower who tried to bring the irregularity to his superiors’ attention.
That’s the latest we’ve heard of misconduct at Las Vegas Sands.
